West New York Public Affairs Commissioner Cosmo Cirillo is calling on the Hudson County Board of Elections to place an early polling location on the waterfront.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“We have an entire group of residents who have been underrepresented and disenfranchised from voting because there are no polling places accessible in their community. I’m calling on the board of elections to fix that issue,” Cirillo said in a statement.
A two-term commissioner and mayoral hopeful heading the “West New York Forward” ticket, Cirillo added that such an effort would increase voter turnout for a neighborhood that has not regularly had their voices heard in municipal elections.
The West New York Board of Commissioners unanimously approved (5-0) a measure at last night’s meeting to have early voting at two locations to be determined on May 5th, 6th, and 7th.
The non-partisan West New York municipal elections are on May 9th, where Cirillo and his slate will take on the “Sires Team for West New York” led by Albio Sires, a former congressman, assembly speaker, and mayor.
Hudson County Board of Elections Clerk Michael Harper said this evening that they would follow the commissioners’ lead on where the two early voting locations would be.
Editor’s note: This story was updated with new information.
Oh, finally, the waterfront / cliffside voters get remembered. Now that they need you. Remember, you are the voters who pay disproportionately more for the rest of your towns.
NEWS FLASH: An election must be closer than we thought, someone needs your votes!
The suggestion would have merit, if only if were genuine and not a cheap ploy for a little attention. The county will not (and cannot) change polling locations so close to any election. Proposing this one month before the city election is useless. Mr. Cirillo, who gets paid for multiple jobs including as “full time” business administrator in Guttenberg (replacing someone who was “part time”), should know better. He was one of the five Democrats on the statewide redistricting commission, and did such a bang-up job of protecting local interests that, starting in January, North Hudson will lose representation and have only one district and only three state legislators, down from six.
Don’t you deserve better than to be remembered only once every four years?
You should re-visit two of your assertions, Counselor. Mr. Cirillo voted to KEEP all six legislators, but he was out-voted on that score, therefore your assertion is baseless and false.On your other, mostly false assertion, Only non tax-abated waterfront properties in WNY are paying their fair, share of taxes on their luxury homes. A very substantial amount of WNY waterfront home owners that pay Payments in Lieu of Taxes are actually paying significantly less than those at the top of the hill who live in luxury homes or condos but pay full taxes. Facts matter, Counselor.
There’s that old saying: “You had one job.” Mr. Cirillo was probably selected, as opposed to any of the thousands of Democrats around the state, among the five chosen to represent the party in redistricting, to safeguard certain interests. He was ineffective in his one task, which was to preserve HIS OWN district. (As Mel Allen used to say, “How ’bout that!”) If that was not the purpose for his selection, why was he chosen? And while the Jersey City mayor got his way on redistricting, isn’t it curious how the entire county party hierarchy rushed to endorse him for Governor THREE YEARS before the next election like Bergenline Avenue caught on fire again? What’s the hurry?
As for the other issue you raise, surely the waterfront crowd would love to know more about how they aren’t paying their fair share.
Obfuscate all you like. Mr. Cirillo was one of 5 statewide democrats on this 11 member redistricting panel, that also had 5 republicans and a judge who was the tie-breaking vote. On the vote that eliminated 3 of North Hudson’s 6 legislators, the vote was 9-2 in favor, with Cirillo and Kean, Jr. the two dissenting votes. Your semantics don’t hold water.
This is a phenomenal idea. No one is talking about redistricting the whole waterfront in a month. It’s a proposal for an early voting trailer to be stationed in the waterfront area, much like Sires is planning to place 2 such outlets outside senior citizen buildings in other parts of the town. Lets go!
Waterfront!
Wait I did I just see another not so great mayor sally vega floating away on the Hudson?
Had Mayor Vega been 100% transparent as to HOW the 9 $million deficit had been part of the deficit for years, which forced his hand to raise taxes substantially in 2009, he might have been re-elected, albeit perhaps in a split ticket. Amazingly, he only lost a Commission seat by 78 votes. Most of that debt (well over 40 million)was created in the DeFino Administration via the troubled WNYMUA before Vega was elected a Commissioner in 1991. Vega’s problem is that he rubber-stamped a massive re-finance of that debt as a Commissioner in the Sires Administration in the late 1990’s. Nevertheless, Sires is the most qualified Commission candidate running and Cirillo is the second most qualified. I have already voted for both of them in the May 9 election. Ticket splitting in WNY elections is a time honored tradition among an informed electorate who does not like their Commission candidates arbitrarily dictated to them by ANYONE. Take the 2011 Election. Roque had 536 or so votes more than his running mate Vargas. While the Gap between Vega and his fifth place running mate was about 330 or so. In that election, about 1 in 6 Roque ticket voters voted for one or more candidates on the Vega Ticket. On the Vega Ticket, about 1 in 10 of their voters voted for one or more candidates on the Roque ticket. Cirillo has an excellent chance of being the first split ticket winner since Armellino and Cendo did it in 1951.
Vega was a dud just like his political career was non existent before Sires made the mistake to place him on the ticket…oh wait that was Vega swimming with the rest of the river rats.