Election Prep

The election is still more than three weeks away, but, because for various reasons the ballots for the November 3 election are not as straightforward as they usually are, a little advance preparation is recommended. The sample ballots for the five wards in Hudson can all be viewed (or downloaded) on the Columbia County Board of Elections website. Here are the links:

First Ward

Second Ward

Third Ward

Fourth Ward

Fifth Ward

The problematic column on all the ballots is Column 6: Common Council President. In this column, Victor Mendolia's name appears twice--on Row A (Democratic) and Row E (Working Families)--but Mendolia is not running. He withdrew from the race on August 21 and threw his support to Tom DePietro. To vote for DePietro, you must go all the way down to Row I, where his name appears on his own party line, All-Hudson.

The Fourth Ward ballot presents an additional challenge for voters. The last two columns--the ones on the far right--are for the aldermen. Voters can select two from among the four candidates whose names are on the ballot--Alexis Keith, Derrick Smart, Rich Volo, Lauren Scalera. They can choose two from Column 9, or they can choose one from Column 9 and one from Column 10, but they cannot choose two from Column 10, because the only name that appears in Column 10 is Lauren Scalera.

      

The burden will be on the election inspectors to make certain voters understand that in the last two columns they don't have to vote for one and only one candidate in each column.

COPYRIGHT 2015 CAROLE OSTERINK