So much for voting security.
With several tight races left to be decided following the Nov. 6 election, the Nassau elections board carefully impounded voting machines and locked up paper ballots to await final counting in the subsequent days. But the following Sunday, staffers found the doors wide open with strangers roaming through the offices.
Turns out county Public Safety had opened the building to allow free access to workers installing phone lines for neighboring offices — then left. “It is important to note that none of this activity was done with prior notification,” both Democratic and Republican election commissioners complained in writing to County Executive Thomas Suozzi’s office. “To have unidentified people walking around voting machines and paper ballots creates an incredible breach of security in our mandate to protect the integrity of the election process.”
Democratic commissioner William Biamonte told Newsday: ....
Celeste Hadrick
“Nothing was tampered with. We wanted to point out it could have been a problem.” The letter was co-signed by Republican commissioner John DeGrace.
Deputy County Executive Timothy Driscoll said he referred the complaint to Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey. “Public Safety must be made to understand that simply because someone has a work order does not mean they are to be granted carte blanche without proper authorizations and acknowledgments,” the election commissioners wrote. “In this situation, with many exterior doors left open and unattended, a much graver situation could have developed.”