Polling hours extended for school board race

BY DANIELLE MEDINA
Correspondent

BRICK – Brick residents can cast their ballots a little earlier when they vote in this year’s school board elections.

The Board of Education unanimously agreed at its last meeting to extend polling hours to 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on April 18.

Last year, polls were open from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m., leaving a number of voters, mostly senior citizens, disenfranchised, board member Vice President Frank Pannucci said.

The extended hours will cost the district $2,300 per hour for every additional hour that the polls are open, Business Administrator Nicholas Puleio said.

“It’s really not a lot of money,” Pannucci said. “A few dollars more is worth it to make the citizens more comfortable.”

The real expense for this election is the mailing of sample ballots, which is required by state law, Pannucci said.

Resident Nan Coll, a poll worker, applauded the board’s decision to open the polls earlier in the day.

“Between 5 and 6 p.m., we only get a handful of people,” Coll said. “At 11 a.m., we’ll get people returning from their morning activities and those heading out to their afternoon activities.”

But resident Brenda Calderone said that she thought the extended hours would have little affect on voter turnout.

“Sixty-nine hundred dollars is a lot of money in education. It does make a difference,” Calderone said. “Eleven a.m. to 2 p.m. doesn’t make a difference in voting.”

Twenty percent of Brick’s registered voters went to the polls in the 2005 school elections, as compared to 18 percent in 2004, when the polls were open between 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Fifty-one percent of Brick’s voters approved the district’s $124,310,790 budget last year — the first time in four years the budget passed.

Three board seats — those of incumbents Catherine M. Lindenbaum, John A. Paredes and Daniel J. Woska — are up for grabs in this year’s school board elections. None of the incumbents have announced re-election bids.

Former board member Brian DeLuca and residents Dr. Allen Atheras and Cynthia McCarthy have announced their candidacy.