The Newburgh City School District Board of Education on May 21 conducted a formal canvass of affidavit ballots and accepted amended election totals that incorporated 18 valid affidavit votes, the board clerk said.

Clerk of the board Mr. Shaw told the board that 43 affidavit ballots were returned at the district's nine polling sites, 24 of which matched Orange County Board of Elections registration records. "The affidavit ballots are counted after all of the other ballots are counted," Shaw said, and the poll clerks flagged six ballots as rejected; the remaining 18 were opened and tallied as part of the official canvass.

Why it matters: the canvass finalized vote totals used to certify four budget and proposition questions and to complete the tally for board seats. The clerk presented the district's machine count, absentee and affidavit totals: machine count 2,771; absentee/early voters 197; 18 affidavit ballots; grand total 2,986 votes cast in the election.

The clerk read the list of affidavit-ballot envelope names that had been returned to poll sites and placed in sealed envelopes for canvass: Robert Rios; Ralphord Smith; Grazia Profaci; Barbara Dennis; Tara Salber; Yvette Colon; Jennifer Dietz; Doris E. Shaw; Alyssa J. Schreiner; Jason Barkoff; Sarah Lopez; Gianna Barodino; Matthew Zeltzer; Brianna Knowles; Jordan Bryant; Valerie Bryant; Joyce A. Bressler; Mark Avon; Judith A. Lauerowski; Abdullah Ali; Shania Rios; Natalie Barber; Karen Plino; and Angelina Vienzia. The clerk said those 24 were the envelopes presented for review; after signature verification and review, six were rejected and 18 were counted.

The clerk asked the board to amend the previously posted results (TBD entries on the agenda) to reflect the canvass; board members then moved and approved the amendment to resolution 3.1 that incorporated the affidavit ballot totals.

The clerk also reported board-candidate tallies on the screen and said the highest vote-getter for a particular seat was Mark Levinson and that John DeRae was the second-highest vote-getter, with minor write-in adjustments noted. The clerk provided the detailed canvass sheet to the board and said the official results, as amended, would be entered into the district record.

Board members and the clerk repeatedly confirmed signature matches and ballot validity during the poll-clerk canvass; poll clerks Cheryl Chapo and Alicia Dosio assisted in the count. The board accepted the amended totals by roll call and moved on to other business.

The board also recorded the procedural machine and absentee totals and closed the canvass portion of the meeting; the district will file the official canvass with the district records in accordance with the resolution on the agenda.