MONTICELLO, NY — What you read in the news, what you see on television, about election chaos? About ballots not going out on time?
That’s not true here, said Lori Benjamin, …
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MONTICELLO, NY — What you read in the news, what you see on television, about election chaos? About ballots not going out on time?
That’s not true here, said Lori Benjamin, co-commissioner for the Sullivan County Board of Elections, at the Government Services committee meeting held on October 1.
“I want everyone to know, in Sullivan County we’ve never had a problem with the mail. We’ve never had a problem receiving absentee ballots. We’ve never had a problem mailing out absentee ballots,” she said.
And lest you think, “But this election is different,” remember: there have been other elections this year. The village elections happened last month. The primaries happened in June.
Granted, from the list of people Benjamin thanked for recent help, it took everyone and everything to pull it off, from the treasurer’s folding machine to the Department of Public Works guys to the county attorney’s office.
The Board of Elections just sent off 4,790 absentee ballots, Benjamin said, and another 1,700 were expected to go out that day. (Plus 300 in process!)
“The phones have been ringing non-stop, people calling in,” she said.
None of it sounded easy. “This election is a little contentious,” Benjamin said, underestimating just a bit. “I’ve never experienced this, with the [pandemic] that’s happened, with how many tears are on the phone,” as Board of Elections staff work to calm callers down.
“We’ve done very well here,” she finished, emphatically.
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