Dear members of the Hoosic Valley School District community:
We are writing to reassure voters of the confidential nature of the voting process that the School District will be following this year as the result of an Executive Order of Governor Andrew Cuomo (No. 202.26) issued in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We wanted to be proactive to communicate the collection and counting procedure that the School District will be utilizing on the date of the budget vote and election, June 9, 2020.
On or before 5:00 p.m. on that date, qualified voters in the School District are to return their completed ballots.
Those ballots will have been placed by the voter in a signed ballot envelope that has been placed in a return mailing envelope. Return mailing envelopes will be opened by the District Clerk and the sealed ballot envelope will be examined to ensure that it has been signed by the voter, as required by law. Beginning at 5:00 p.m. on the day of the budget vote and election, ballots will be withdrawn from their signed ballot envelopes and placed, still folded, into a secure receptacle separate from the signed ballot envelopes. In this way, it will not be possible for ballots to be linked to or associated with the envelopes in which they were returned. After all of the ballots have been separated from their envelopes, election inspectors will remove the anonymous ballots from the secure receptacle and the counting process will begin. The counting will be live streamed. Please check the district’s website on Tuesday, June 9 for more information.
The School District takes your privacy very seriously and, by utilizing the system outlined above, we are confident that your vote will remain secure, confidential, and anonymous.
Please do not hesitate to contact Heidi Pascarella (518) 753-4458 ext. 1506 or
[email protected] should you have any questions or concerns.