Wednesday, February 6, 2008

RIOC Board Nomination Election Results - More Ballots Cast for RIOC Nominees than for Spitzer, Clinton or Maloney



According to the Main Street WIRE, the six winners for nominees to the Roosevelt Island Board of Directors in order of total votes are:
  1. Kathie GRIMM with 937 Votes
  2. Jonathan KALKIN with 933 Votes
  3. Frank FARANCE with 911 Votes
  4. Erin FEELY-NAHEM with 832 Votes
  5. Fay CHRISTIAN with 803 votes and
  6. Howard POLIVY with 750 votes
A total of 1718 ballots were cast in the election.

The Main Street Wire has complete building by building election results.

Congratulations to the six winners and sincere thanks to all of the ten candidates for their dedicated civic efforts.

Now the real work begins. Vetting the nominee candidates by the the New York State Police, getting Governor Spitzer to nominate the winning candidates and then approved by the State Senate.

For comparison purposes with other Roosevelt Island elections the Main Street WIRE reports that in 2006 Governor Spitzer received a total of 1363 votes, Senator Clinton received a total of 1315 votes, Congress Member Maloney received a total of 1351 votes, State Senator Serrano received a total of 1248 votes and former Assembly Member Grannis received a total of 1282 votes.

I think the legitimacy of this election cannot now be challenged given the fact that more ballots were cast by Roosevelt Islanders for these RIOC Board nominees than were cast for any of the local Roosevelt Island elected officials including Governor Spitzer. Assuming the winning candidates pass background checks they should be appointed to the RIOC Board.

6 comments :

RI 360 said...

I don't believe we can make the analogy of the 1718 votes against the other elections as in those contests each voter got one single vote. Here each voter had up to six possible votes. Assuming to be conservative each voter only voted for 3 of the 6 open seats that would mean that 572 residents cast those 1718 votes.

Perhaps I am looking at this the wrong way but I believe I am correct.

RI 360 said...

Disregard the above comment as my brain was not reading the WIRE results correctly. The 1718 refers to ballots not votes. The total votes cast obviously far exceed 1718 votes. My brain slipped for a few minutes.

Anonymous said...

In 2006 there was no hotly contested presidential primary and therefore it is not surprising that fewer voters went to the polls. Every primary and caucus so far has been accompanied by huge turnouts. The RIOC Board nomination process benefited from the fact that voters are especially eager to participate in the presidential election this year.

Regarding the comments by RI 360, the total number of votes cast for the RIOC Board candidates is 7334. This means that each of the 1718 ballots had on average 4.3 votes.

Anonymous said...

I strongly disagree about questioning the legitimacy of the RIOC elections. Of the entire Island, only the residents of Southtown and Octagon, generally the newest residents of the Island, were required to vote in two different locations for the presidential primary and RIOC election. This discriminately placed a heavier burden on a specified class of voters to vote in the RIOC election, and I believe is the first time Roosevelt Island elections were handled this way. One has ot wonder about the timing of same, and consider the disenfranchisement of the new residents in those two areas.

RI 360 said...

I think the idea was that by having the RIOC elections at 455 Main Street and at the Octagon they were hoping it would be easier for those residents to vote for the RIOC nominee candidates. I am sure the intent was never to disenfranchise anybody.

Anonymous said...

What makes you think so? If the intent were truly to make it easier, shouldn't they have been allowed to vote both nationally and for RIOC in teh same location?