According to the Chautauqua County Board of Elections, in a New York State election law quirk, village elections are not allowed to fall on St. Patrick’s Day. Since 1998, according to the bill’s original sponsors, New York’s village elections are never to be on St. Patrick’s Day and are to take place a day later to “honor Irish heritage.”

The only time since the bill’s passage that the collision of democracy and Irish celebration has occurred was 2009.

Out of Seven Villages, Only Westfield to Hold Contested Races

According to Abram and Election Commissioner Norman P. Green, the only contested election is happening in the village of Westfield, where incumbent Mayor Michael Vandevelde will be running on the Democratic and Westfield Now lines. He is being opposed for re-election by Richard C. Raynor on the Republican line.

Also, in a vote for any two for village trustee, the choices are incumbent Robert Cochran, Democratic and Westfield Now; Alan Holbrook, Democratic, Republican and Westfield Now; and David Carr, Republican.

The candidates in five other villages are running unopposed:

• Bemus Point Republicans Mayor Bryan Dahlberg, village trustees Margaret Richardson and Chris Wright.
• Cassadaga Progressive Party village trustee candidates Joshua Slaven  and Amanda Kalfas
• Sinclairville Helping Hands Party mayor candidate Tami Berg and vote for any two trustee candidates John Embury on the Helping Hands Party and Patricia France on the Restoration Party.
• Cherry Creek Republican trustees John F. Lukaszewski and Bruce W. Hendricks
• Sherman People’s Party Mayor John R. Patterson and vote for any two trustees James Weise on the People’s and Donna Higginbotham on the Citizens First Party.

No Candidate for Panama Village Trustee

In another local 2015 oddity, the 308 registered voters in the village of Panama will have an election for one village trustee, but no name will be listed on the ballot.

“Panama’s Mayor Charles Loveland called and said he couldn’t raise any interest for the elective position,” said Election Commissioner Brian Abram. “Hopefully someone’s name, who wants to take the job, will be written in by voters on Election Day. It’s a small village and there are just two trustees and a mayor.”

Elections for All Other Villages Scheduled for November

The remaining eight Chautauqua County Villages have moved elections to coincide with  November 3rd 2015  and future General Elections, with Panama and Sherman also scheduled to join the November schedule in 2016.

Polling sites for the March 18 village elections will be open Noon to 9 p.m.  Absentee ballot applications and sample ballots are available at votechautauqua.com for elections conducted by the Board of Elections.

Absentee ballot applications must be received at the Board of Elections, 7 North Erie Street, Mayville 14757 no later than March 11  by mail or by March 17 with in person absentee application delivery at the election office.

Sinclairville and Cassadaga village clerks conduct their own elections separate from the Board of Elections.

On Tuesday, voters in both Mayville and Forestville approved a referendum to move the village elections in November to coincide with the general election. According to today’s Post-Journal, the vote in Mayville was 135 to 25 and the vote in Forestville was 58 to 27.

In addition to the two referendums, some of the villages in the county also had contested races. Winners of those races include:

• Brocton: Bryan Woleben – village trustee;
• Cherry Creek: Michael Seivert and Betty Milspaw – village trustee;
• Mayville: Richard Syper and Tim Jacobson – village trustee;
• Westfield:  David Brooker and Michael Catalano – village trustee.

All other races were unopposed.

This year, the Villages of Cassadaga, Falconer, Fredonia and Lakewood do not have any expiring offices and will not be holding elections. The Villages of Celoron and Silver Creek elections will be held in November.

According to Chautauqua County Board of Election officials, some of the local caucuses scheduled include:

Bemus Point:  Democrats caucus Tue. Jan. 21, 5:15 p.m., See-Zurh House, 14 Main St., and Republicans caucus Sat. Jan. 25, 10 a.m., Bemus Point Village Hall, 13 Alburtus Ave.  There will be elections for two expiring village trustee terms.

Brocton: Portland Town Hall, 87 West Main St. is the site for both major party caucuses on Sat. Jan. 25, with the Republicans at 9 a.m. and the Democrats at 10 a.m.  There will be an election for one village trustee vacancy.

Cherry Creek: Cherry Creek Village Hall, 6763 Main St. is the site for both major party caucuses on Sat. Jan 25, for the Democrats at 9:30 a.m. and Thurs. Jan. 23, for the Republicans at 7 p.m.  There will be an election for the expiring terms of the mayor and two village trustees.

Forestville:  Forestville Village Hall Municipal Building, 18 Chestnut St., is the site for both major political party caucuses on Thurs. Jan. 23, for the Democrats at 7 p.m. and Tue. Jan. 28, for the Republicans at 6 p.m.  There will be an election for the expiring terms of the mayor and two village trustees.

Mayville:  Mayville American Legion, 144 South Erie St., is the site for both major party caucuses on  Wed. Jan. 22, for the Democrats at 6 p.m. and Sat. Jan. 25 for the Republicans at 1 p.m. There will be an election for the expiring terms of the mayor and two village trustees.

Panama: Did not file for major party caucuses, but will have a March village election conducted by the Board of Elections.  There will be an election for the expiring terms of the mayor and one village trustee.

Sherman: Did not file for major party caucuses, but will have a March village election conducted by the Board of Elections.  There will be an election for two expiring village trustee terms and one village trustee vacancy.

Sinclairville:  Did not file for major party caucuses, but will have a March village election conducted by the Sinclairville Village Clerk.   There will be an election for two expiring village trustee terms and one village trustee vacancy.

Westfield: Eason Hall, 23 Elm St., is the site for both major political party caucuses Tue. Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. for the Democrats and Wed. Jan. 22, at 7 p.m. for the Republicans.

Celoron, Falconer, Fredonia, Lakewood and Silver Creek elections are conducted in concert with the November General Elections.   Cassadaga does not have any offices to be filled at an election in 2014.

For more information, contact the Board of Elections at 753-4580.

In the Lakewood village board race, incumbent Susan Drago and newcomer David DiSalvo were elected village trustees. Drago received 262 votes and DiSalvo gained 255. Incumbent Joe Troche lost re-election, receiving 198 votes.

In Falconer, village residents approved a measure to move the spring village election to November. The proposition received no opposing votes.

In Sherman, village Mayor John Patterson Jr. was reelected after running unopposed. Meanwhile, in the village trustee race, incumbent Brett Cook won re-election and new comer Donna Higginbortham was also elected. Incumbent William Wiggers did not receive enough votes to be voted back onto the board.

In Westfield, Michael VandeVelde won the election for mayor, unseating current mayor David Carr – who had held the position since 2005. Also in the Westfield trustee election, incumbent Robert Cochran won re-election, receiving 547 votes. Newcomer Debra Puckhaber won the other available spot, receiving 349 votes. The two other candidates who did not receive enough votes were incumbent Chris Jaynes and challenger Thomas Rackowski.

All village election results can be found online at votechautauqua.com.

LAKEWOOD
John Jablonski III defeated Susan Lane 196 to 170, after absentee ballots were counted, in the one contested village trustee race. Jablonski will finish the three years remaining on an unexpired term. Lane was appointed by the Village Board in January to the position of trustee after P.J. Wendel resigned from the board to take a seat with the county legislature. Jablonski a native of Batavia, has served as the executive director of the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy since 1993.

CHERRY CREEK
Bruce Fish defeated incumbent Dean Mount 50 to 14, to win the mayor’s seat. Barbara Hodges and Geraldine Reynolds were elected village trustees.

MAYVILLE
Sharon Smead and Tye Flurie voted village trustees. Ms. Smead received 151 votes and Flurie received 177. Incumbents Richard Syper and James Roach lost the election with 101 votes and 89 votes, respectively.

The Board of Elections will act as the chief election officials for all villages this year except Sinclairville and Cassadaga.  These two villages are continuing to use their respective village clerks as the chief village election officer and will be counting votes by hand.  All other villages will vote on the county owned optical scan paper ballot system.

Villages with contested races include Brocton, Cherry Creek, Forestville, Lakewood, Mayville, Silver Creek and Westfield.

Villages with uncontested ballots include Bemus Point, Cassadaga, Falconer, Panama, Sherman and Sinclairville.

Village elections will be held at their normal November poll site for village voters who have an election, except the Bemus Point elections will be held at Bemus Point Village Hall.

All village poll sites will be open today from Noon until 9 p.m.

COMPLETE LIST OF VILLAGE ELECTION RACES

Chautauqua County Democratic Election Commissioner Norman Green says cost of operating the main optical scan voting machines is the main reason for the proposed law. However, Green claims that the cost is actually associated with printing ballots, as two commercial print vendors in the State have a stranglehold monopoly on counties and are charging 57 cents per ballot. 

Chautauqua County is one of a few counties state-wide that prints its own ballots in-house.  According to Green, Chautauqua County and Erie County are now printing ballots for just 15 cents per ballots, which can result in a savings of thousands of dollars in any given election year.

In Chautauqua County, thirteen of fifteen villages have moved elections to county control and voting is being conducted on optical scan voting machines. Three of eighteen school districts have also moved voting to optical scan voting. Chautauqua County Election officials say that, if anything, new optical scan system is actually cheaper than, or at least comparable to, the cost of an election using lever machine technology.