NYS Board of Elections Sends in Workers To Help Onondaga Board Relieve Severe Backlog

With less than a month to go before the general election, state officers have descended on Onondaga County’s Board of Elections. Inspectors have “grave concerns” over the handling of voter documents.

The New York State Board of Elections called in the cavalry to address what it sees as a threat to the integrity of the upcoming election.

WAER News first reported a backlog of thousands of voter registration applications on September 20^th . In an interview after county commissioners presented their budget commissioners Dustin Czarny and Michele Sardo freely acknowledged they were facing an overwhelming backlog.

“We have added over 4,000 voters this last month, which was probably about 15,000 forms processed. We have another 18,000 to go," Czarny said.

Sardo said their staff has been busy.

“They have completed 18,000 registration forms, and now we have almost 20,000 absentee early vote by mail forms that still have to be done.”

That admission apparently set off alarms for the state board of elections to check in on the severity of the backlog. The Onondaga Board assured them they were addressing the problem. However, a visit to the elections offices last week revealed further issues and a follow up letter admonishing the commissioners for failing to communicate earlier the depth of the problems. Those include a visible lack of urgency, oversight, and mismanagement of staff resources. Commissioners Czarny and Sardo declined interviews for this story. But Sardo told WAER News in September that they weren't shy about asking for more staff.

"We do need more staff members in our office and we've asked a few years," Sardo said. "It's not our decision to let us have it or not. And we have to go along with what our budget is. But we do need more staff members to alleviate the burden of this registration and the absentees that are coming in.”

Czarny says Onondaga County's Board of Elections is severely understaffed compared to other counties.

“Our office has 20 full time workers. That's one for every 14,000 voters," Czarny said. "Other offices average one for every eight to 10,000 voters.”

In statements, Czarny and Sardo say a presidential election year always creates a backlog.

A spokesperson with the State Board of Elections declined an interview. She says nine agents have arrived to help with the backlog, especially mail-in ballot requests, and forms for military and overseas citizens.

The failure to meet deadlines has forced the state to report Onondaga County’s Board to the U.S. Justice Department.

Here's GOP Commissioner Michele Sardo's statement:

"The county has not put up any financial restrictions to get through this back log. The County Executive is helpful sending over staff to assist our office with whatever we need. We have temporary employees, inspectors and voting machine technicians working along with us including 10 to 15 hour work days to get everyone registered along with sending out absentee ballots. This is a Presidential year and there is always back log that needs to be done. Onondaga County always gets the job completed!”

Here's Democratic Commissioner Dustin Czarny's statement:

"We are working in partnership with the State Board of Elections to address these matters as well as the backlog. In a presidential year we experienced a large volume of voter registrations and vote by mail applications. We have worked to clear the back log of this influx for the last two months. We are working with the state board currently and hope to have cleared the backlog shortly. I feel confident that we have implemented the recommended changes and that along with the recent hiring of temporary staff will help us fulfill our obligations to the voters this year and into the future.”

Below is the initial letter from the NYS Board of Elections to Onondaga County's Board of Elections:

CoExec_Letter_Onondaga_10.4.2024.pdf

This is the follow-up letter:

CoExec_Letter_Onondaga_10.7.2024.pdf

This article was originally published on WAER.