After failing to come to an agreement on the appointment of election inspectors during the monthly board meeting on Monday, Feb. 3, the Village of Flower Hill had a special meeting on Thursday, Feb. 6 to decide. The board voted unanimously to have four election inspectors, Democrats Leslie House and Anthony Rowlands and Republicans Carolyn Mastropieri and Michael Putre. They will preside over the March 18 village election.
Originally, the village was to have only two election inspectors, but trustee Kate Hirsch, who is also running for mayor, asked why the previous election inspectors that have served for a decade were not chosen this election year.
“The question arose in my mind as to why they were not being used and I asked (village clerk) Ronnie (Schatzkamer) and she said they were not on the list,” Hirsch said. “They were on the list and I was not sure why we were not using them. Ronnie was out sick so we could not resolve it at the meeting. They are on the list and approved so we were able to use them. They have served the village for 10 years.”
This election will be a little different for the village as scanning machines will be used rather than the typical paper ballots.
“This is the first contested election that I have ever run as chief election official of the village,” Schatzkamer said. “Normally, we have such a low-turnout that we have been using paper ballots to avoid the cost of running an election with the Nassau County Board of Elections scanning machines. I called the board of elections and asked them what they would recommend. They recommended to have two scanning machines and one ballot marker for handicap use. They also said to have four election inspectors, two Democrats and two Republicans.”
