This op-ed piece originally appeared in Syracuse.com on October 2, 2023. You can find it on their website here: https://www.syracuse.com/opinion/2023/10/commissioner-onondaga-county-is-underfunding-our-elections-guest-opinion-by-dustin-m-czarny.html

I decided to write this in response to the Onondaga County Legislature GOP shorting our budget and publicly blaming the County Board of Elections for not giving enough data. The joint testimony referenced in this op-ed is archived on ym website here: https://dustinczarny.com/2023/10/04/2024-budget-testimony-by-the-onondaga-county-board-of-elections/

Dustin M. Czarny is Onondaga County Elections Commissioner (D) and chair of the New York State Elections Commissioner Association Democratic Caucus.

While we are preparing for the 2023 general election, Board of Elections throughout New York state are already preparing for the 2024 presidential election. Many counties have already passed or sare passing their 2024 budgets this fall. New York funds elections primarily through county governments and Boards of Elections are communicating our needs in hopes of being properly funded next year. Unfortunately, many county governments throughout the state are failing to understand those needs to properly fund our democracy.

We can look no further than our own backyard for a prime example of this. Early on, both commissioners and the staff of the Onondaga County Board of Elections worked in a bipartisan fashion to try and make the county aware of the true minimum costs of running the 2024 elections. When we tried to meet with the Office of Management and Budget, we were denied a meeting with top staff to explain our needs. When the county executive budget came out, it left our request short by over $1 million and we once again requested meetings not only with the county executive, but a hearing with the Onondaga County Legislature. Despite inviting the Board of Elections to hearings every other budget cycle that I can remember, we were denied a hearing and any subsequent meetings.

In desperation, we submitted a detailed, three-page written testimony meticulously detailing the needs of the department. We outlined election law changes that required more training and operational hours for our election inspectors in each of the three elections next year. Yet this was ignored without comment and wrongfully described as woefully inadequate by Majority Leader Brian May. This was an insult to the staff of the Board of Elections that put in countless hours preparing and disseminating our justifications to the county executive, Office of Management and Budget, and every member of the county legislature, including May.

The GOP caucus of the Onondaga County Legislature only responded by putting less than half of our shortfall, approximately $475,000, in contingency. They blocked every attempt by the Democratic caucus to address our needs and add staff and funding. This will mean that during one of the busiest election seasons in our generation, we will need to continually go back to the legislature to ask them to release funds while trying to serve the most basic functions of our democracy. This is an added burden to our already understaffed and underfunded Board of Elections.

Onondaga County, by every measure, has woefully underfunded our democracy. Our full-time employee to voter ratio (1 for every 15,224.3 voters) is the worst of every county in New York state. Onondaga County’s failure to address this has led to a high turnover rate in our office. Elections staff are underpaid and overworked, which has led to a near 50% turnover since 2020. As was highlighted in neighboring counties, election staff can’t just choose to put off work until next elections. We often work countless hours of overtime to make up for this shortfall. Still, this loss of institutional knowledge is another unnecessary burden that is placed upon us by the systemic, willful ignorance of the county legislature and county executive.

I wish this were an isolated incident. In my role as Democratic Caucus Chair of the New York State Elections Commissioner Association, I have heard from many of my colleagues that they are facing similar, though not as drastic, shortages going into 2024. If the counties throughout New York State are unwilling or unable to provide adequate funding, then New York state must address this in the next legislative session.

Last session, a bill by Sen. John Mannion and Assemblywoman Pam Hunter (A1258/S644) sought to address this issue. This bill established minimum number of staff for each Board of Elections based on voter population. It has passed the Senate twice but has not come up for a vote in the Assembly. The Assembly, Senate and governor should pass and sign this bill as soon as possible next session to fix the long-term, systemic funding issues we are seeing at the county level. Furthermore, New York should set aside money in the state budget for the hiring of temporary staff for 2024 to make up for the immediate shortfall in many counties going into next year’s very consequential presidential election. The federal government should also pass similar funding legislation as the 2020 CARES act that provided direct funding for elections nationwide.

As Boards of Elections come upon the 2024 election cycle, we face a multitude of challenges. Election officials are up to the task of delivering a fair, safe and secure election but they need the support from county, state and federal officials to do so. We face rising turnout, more responsibilities, security threats and adoption of new technology. We cannot overcome all those burdens while fighting for the basic minimum of funding our elections. We need all hands-on deck in 2024 and less arbitrary and unnecessary obstacles placed in our way. Only working together can we protect and serve the most basic building block of our democracy, the right to cast your vote safely and securely.

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