Polls are open today, Election Day, from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Village of Pelham residents vote at Daronco Town House at 20 Fifth Avenue and Village of Pelham Manor residents go to Our Lady of Perpetual Help school at 575 Fowler Ave.
In the only competitive local contest, Village of Pelham Manor residents are voting on whether their village’s elections should be moved from March to November. This ballot initiative is called Proposition 3 and reads:
“Shall the General Village Election of the Village of Pelham Manor be held annually on the Tuesday next succeeding the first Monday in November and be conducted by the Westchester County Board of Elections, with the term of office of each elected Village Officer currently holding office extended so as to terminate at noon on the first Monday in December in the year in which their term of office would otherwise expire, upon which date the term of office of any subsequently-elected Village Officer will commence?”
The proposition arrives before voters after a courtroom battle this summer.
Erica Winter, co-chairwoman of the Move the Manor Village Election Committee, delivered an 801-signature petition calling for the referendum on July 1 to Pelham Manor Village Manager Lindsey Luft, who in her role as village clerk reviewed and rejected the petition four days later. Winter and Pelham Democratic Town Committee Chairwoman Allison Frost won a reversal in state court. The Pelham Manor Board of Trustees, Luft and the Republican county election commissioner lost an appeal of that decision, and the four-judge appellate panel sent the issue to the voters of the Manor to decide.
The all-Republican village board opposes moving the municipality’s elections to November, while the Pelham Democratic Town Committee backs the change.
In the Village of Pelham, incumbent Trustees Hanan Eldahry and Russell Solomon and newcomer Krystal Howell are running without opposition for two-year terms on the village board. This is the fifth year since the Village of Pelham moved its elections to November that the Democratic candidates have had no Republican opponents.
The Village of Pelham board has seven members and will remain all Democratic when this year’s candidates are confirmed as elected.
Town of Pelham Justice John Gardner is seeking reelection to the bench on the Democratic line and is also unopposed.
One county referendum is on the ballot. Proposition 2 asks voters to change the term of office for Westchester County legislators from two years to four years.
