Several residents of the villages of Pelham Manor and Pelham are collecting signatures to put two referenda on the November ballot that would move elections in both villages from the third Tuesday in March to election day in November.

Toby Marxuach-Gusciora, who’s circulating petitions in Pelham Manor, said they needed to collect 400 signatures. “Then it would be a referendum on the November ballot,” said Marxuach-Gusciora. “So all the voters in Pelham Manor would then get a chance to say yes or no. Do you want to change it or leave it the way it is?”

The Board of Trustees in either village could, if it chose to, vote to put a referendum on the ballot.

“So there are only two ways of changing the election,” said Marxuach-Gusciora. “One is for the trustees to do it as a referendum on the ballot in November.” The other is the petition campaigns to get a referendum, one for each village.

Pelham Manor Mayor Jennifer Lapey confirmed the Board of Trustees could change the election date, if they wanted to.

“I’m not an election lawyer, but my understanding is that the board could make a determination, under New York State law,” she said. “Or there could be a petition, which I understand is being circulated, to get a referendum on the ballot and there could be a vote on it.”

“I think we’re asked to vote a lot,” said Liz Massie, who’s collecting names for the Village of Pelham petition effort. “I think this year we will have voted five times. Between the village election, the Board of Education election, the special election, the primary elections, of which there are two, and, of course, the November election. So that’s asking a lot of people.”

Pelham Mayor Michael Volpe said he had not seen the petition. “Anything that gets more people to participate in voting, I would support,” he said. “Now, I’m concerned that if we have two villages, and there are inconsistent dates for voting for village elections, I think that it would be confusing. That’s one concern. The second concern is that if we change the date from March to November, and we have to use the traditional primary process, the candidates who are interested in office may have to declare earlier than they normally would under the March election system. So I hope it doesn’t prevent people from being interested in serving in public office.”

Currently, the Democratic and Republican party organizations in both villages select the candidates for the March balloting.

Some argue moving the village votes from March to November would take residents’ focuses away from local issues.

“There’s this lovely fantasy that when we have our village election in March, it keeps the focus on village candidates and issues and that would complicate that with state and national issues,” Massie said. “That’s a lovely idea, but the trick is that only a tenth to a quarter of the people vote. The trick is that very few people turn up and so the people who get elected don’t get elected by the majority of voters. I think that’s just not democratic.”

Lapey said she didn’t know if it was true that changing the election date would increase voter participation.

But Marxuach-Gusciora pointed to the Village of Irvington, which made the switch. Average turnout in March of 707.2 climbed to an average of 2003.6 in November.

“So it was quite a bit of voter increase.”

Editor’s note: Staff Reporter Stella Winter’s mother Erica Winter is circulating petitions in Pelham Manor.