Politics & Government

Mineola Board Certifies 2011 Election Results

"Healthy" turnout at polls cited.

The  held a brief public session Wednesday night at the  to certify the .

“This year’s election went very smoothly,” Village Clerk Joe Scalero said, attributing it “in no small part” to the use of the older lever voting machines. Former Mineola Mayor, now New York State  had made it  with his first piece of legislation, which was cosponsored in the Assembly by Michelle Schimmel, D-Great Neck.

No incidents were reported at the polling station in the  and “the machines worked flawlessly” Scalero said. “Nobody was denied their right to vote.”

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There were 1,051 total votes cast on the machines as well as 45 absentee ballots either mailed or delivered to the village hall.

Scalero said he compared the turnout to the last 10 years and found it to be the highest turnout since 2008, exclusive of referendums.

Find out what's happening in Mineolawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“Its not really fair to look at average turnout,” Scalero said, “because you get exceptional years, both the highs and the lows.”

This year’s turnout was “only 5 percent” below the median turnout, “so it was not an exceptional well turnout by any means, it was a good, healthy turnout for a village our size,” Scalero said.

Mayor-elect Scott Strauss and George Durham will join current Trustees Paul Pereira and Paul Cusato on the board as well as Lawrence Werther, Sr., who was reelected to the board as a trustee.

The new mayor and trustees will be sworn in during the board’s annual reorganizational meeting, which will occur on April 4 at 7 p.m. at the community center.

The certified, total results for the election are as follows:

Candidate Ballots Absentees Total Votes Mayor Scott Strauss 932 41 973 Trustee George R. Durham 797 37 834 Lawrence Werther, Sr. 654 37 691 Christopher Wales 499 2 501

As a side note, in response to a query about why the flags at the village hall were being flown at half-staff,  Mayor Werther said that a soldier from New York at Fort Hood was killed in Afghanistan.


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