Local village elections are low-key affairs, taking place outside the typical election cycle and with uncontested seats common. One county official even speculated that unless people have a horse in the race, they probably don’t even know it’s happening.
“There is not a lot of fanfare with (village) elections. Unless you are engaged in that process, they are low-key affairs,” said Matthew Clyne, Democratic commissioner of the county Board of Elections. “People generally aren’t aware of it unless they know people are running or they are involved with getting someone placed on the ballot.”
Locally this month, there are elections in both the Village of Colonie and Voorheesville, with only the Colonie race seeing a contest. There is also a contested race in the Village of Ravena.
Most village elections, however, don’t inspire the same political discourse of town, county or state races, and unlike town races, the Albany County Board of Elections doesn’t get involved unless local officials request help or there is a legal issue. The county Board of Elections only has a record of recent village election results if it used electronic machines the county supplied.
Clyne said the village clerk will usually supervise local elections, and the county only provides equipment if requested.
“They are the most parochial of all the jurisdictions. They pretty much run their own show,” Clyne said. “In many cases they have their own parties … and it is a very local operation, and because it is not a high volume situation, they didn’t have to resort to the Board until just recently.”
Elections this March in the Village of Voorheesville aren’t much of a change from its electoral trends. The incumbents — Mayor Robert Conway, Trustee Richard Berger and Trustee John Stevens — are facing no challengers. In fact, the village hasn’t had a contested election since 1994, with the incumbent mayor facing one challenger.
“At one time, (an election) was a big deal in Voorheesville,” Village Deputy Clerk Karen Finnessey said.
The last contested election in Voorheesville had 881 voters cast a ballot to decide the mayor, but all of the uncontested elections since 2003 have only managed to reach a peak of 118 votes. An uncontested special election in 2005 had 45 voters cast a ballot.
In Voorheesville, there are 2,067 registered voters, but 136 are inactive voters. The village has a significant amount of active registered Democratic voters at 808 compared to 414 active registered Republicans, according to state Board of Elections data as of Nov. 1, 2013. There are 506 active voters not registered to a political party in the village, and there are 203 voters are registered to a third party.
By comparison, the Village of Colonie, with a population roughly more than three times Voorheesville, has around 600 to 800 voters turn out when the mayor is on the ballot and drops to around 400 to 600 when only trustees are running, according to Village Clerk Pat Hurley.
In Colonie, the last contested election was at least 16 years ago, Hurley said, however she was not sure of the exact year.
Altamont fares similarly to the other two villages as there have been no contested elections during the past five years, according to Village Clerk Patty Blackwood. Blackwood said she did not know when the last contested election was in Altamont and only knew about the village races since she became clerk.
Some villages have started using electronic voting machines, but Voorheesville has not jumped on board.
“We continue to using paper ballots,” Finnessey said. “It is cost prohibitive to use the electronic machines because you have to have all the special ballots printed, and for the number of voters we have, it does not make sense.”
Blackwood said the village started used electronic voting machines in 2011 and used it again in 2013.
“We run it on our own using the county machines,” Blackwood said.
Clyne said villages must use election inspectors the county Board of Election has certified. He said there are positives and negatives towards using the new electronic voting machines.
“The good side is you get a quick result at night that generally speaking is free from error,” he said. “The bad thing is there’s a lot of prep work that is involved to ensure the scanner can read the ballot and the ballot is configured properly.”
Over time, he sees electronic voting machines being the standard in villages.
“A lot of people still prefer the old style machines,” he said.
There are no elections this year in Altamont, but Blackwood said information about elections would be posted to the village’s website, in legal notices and posting information at the required six locations in the village. Voorheesville follows the same procedure, with the information usually posted at Village Hall, village library, post office, Stewarts, First Niagara Bank and Hannaford.
Hurley said Colonie follows the same legal procedures for posting and also sends out a newsletter with information about the race.
Clyne said the villages could choose to hold its elections during the General Election in November, but he said the switch would be more problematic for the Board of Elections.
“It is cumbersome enough when you include town elections,” he said. “They are better having a separate political calendar.”