Port Chester reviewed 24 affidavit ballots from Tuesday’s village election Thursday while some trustee candidates watched to see whether the outcome might change. Just a few ballots can make a difference in cumulative voting, because one ballot can give multiple votes (six, in Port Chester’s case) to a single candidate.
The election outcome did not appear to change. But in examining individual ballots, candidates saw that some voters had a bizarre way of filling them out.
The ballot is a huge grid, listing each candidate six times from top to bottom—and then another six times for each party line the candidate secured. You might expect voters to pull levers from top to bottom. Instead, some pulled the lever in various places—the first row here, fifth row over there, the third row over on another party line.
Which is fine—as long as voters didn’t cast more than the six votes they’re allowed. As the voter education materials said, “You have the power to cast your six votes exactly as you wish.”
As Village Clerk Janusz Richards read off each ballot, it sounded like a strange form of Bingo.
He said voters were indeed using their votes “any way they like.”
The results are being tracked on the Port Chester village website, www.portchesterny.com.
(Photo: Deputy Village Clerk Jacqueline Johnson fills out the results from affidavit ballots in Port Chester Village Hall Thursday afternoon.)
