Today’s Zoom with Czarny I sit down with Diane Dwire for County Legislature running in OCL 6, representing the South western portions of Onondaga County in Camillus, Marcellus, Skaneateles, Spafford, and Otisco. This former nurse and village councilor has a wealth of experience she would like to bring to county government. I hope you enjoy.
Democrats outraged at Onondaga County redistricting, Republicans say they’re overreacting – WRVO
Czarny raised a number of concerns at the meeting. He wants the population shifts of each town, district and ward from the 2020 Census. He wants to know who is going to draw the maps and if all the members will have access to the software. He said meeting now is taking time away from the two elections commissioners’ jobs, when they should be focusing on the November election. And things got heated when he questioned the commission’s chair, Kevin Hulslander, on his authority to decide when the public hearings will be held.
“He put his finger in my face, and yelled at me and said, ‘You said that I had authority,’” Czarny said. “I said I’m not questioning your authority, I was questioning the wisdom. But I don’t believe you have the authority to just set these meetings by yourself.”
First Public Hearings Set As Onondaga County’s Redistricting Commission Rushes To Redraw District Maps Before Election Day – WAER
“Mr. Knapp said none of this would happen before the election,” Czarny said.”Most of the work will be done after election day,” Knapp told WAER News on Oct 5.”I envision this going well into November, past the November 2nd election.”But with committee meetings and public hearings packed into less than three weeks, Czarny is calling foul.”Now he’s saying the vote won’t happen before the election, but all the work that goes into is? It’s a blatant deception.”
Democrats argue Onondaga County redistricting process is being rushed – Spectrum
“The public should be involved in the drawing of these maps. And the fact that they’re putting these meetings, all of them, before the election — taking time and energy from the two elections commissioners — in a hope to push this map through, before the election, is tantamount to election interference,” Czarny argued
Commissioner in a Car: Absentee Ballot Deadline approaches
Today I talk about the October 13th voter registration adress change deadline as well as the October 18th Absentee ballot application deadline and updates on budgeting and redistricting.
Republican-led panel to draw new legislative districts for Onondaga County – Daily Orange
“They seem to be acting like what we’ve seen with the national Republican Party, using redistricting as a tool to empower minority rule.” Czarny said.
Zoom with Czarny: Jana Rogers OCL 5
Today I sit down with Jana Rogers running for Onondaga County Legislative district 5 covering North East Salina, South West Cicero and a few blocks in Syracuse North side as well as Dewitt. This mother, educator, and musician is running to represent the crab district. I hope you enjoy.
My prepared testimony in front of the Onondaga County Legislature Budget Hearing 10/8/21
(For transparency’s sake I have decided to share my prepared written testimony for today’s Budget Hearing for the Onondaga County Board of Elections at the Onondaga County Legislature. I am arguing for more funding and against the County Executive’s cuts of our draft budget.)
October 8, 2021
Budget Committee Hearing
Onondaga County Legislature
The Board of Elections will have many challenges over the 2022 calendar year in meeting the budget laid out by the County Executive. As we have shown in our annual report, the Onondaga County Board of Elections is already understaffed when compared to the rest of the state. Currently, the Onondaga County Board of Elections averages 1 full time employee for every 19.2k voters. The rest of New York averages 1 full time employee for every 8.5k voters. This is by far the worst ratio in the state. In addition, Onondaga County budgeted $9.28 per voter in 2021. This was one of the most frugal budgets in the state which averaged $19.78 per voter.
We made up for these funding inadequacies over the last several years by heavily relying on grant funding. The CARES grant and the ITC grant specifically helped with staffing shortages during the 2020 Election along with liberal use of our shoebox grant funding. We were able to stretch some of the ITC grant funding into the early part of this year to pay for extra staff to deal with registration and mail check processing. However, these grant funding options are not available for 2022. While Shoebox funding is available for temporary staff in 2022 that grant funding may be needed in 2023 to offset the costs of purchasing additional voting machines.
Our Commissioners made a bi-partisan determination that 4 additional staff members were needed to adequately accomplish the goals and requirements laid out for us by the New York State Legislature and the New York State Board of Elections. We asked for four additional staffing members to deal with the ever growing workload. With the ease of registering online through DMV, we have seen registration through this method increase by a factor of 10. This has tripled the amount of forms we must process each year and the rate is accelerating. This is putting strain on our already low staffing structures. Other boards have added staff since 2019 to deal with these staffing needs. We have not.
In addition to the increase in registrations, the Board of Elections will face more strains on our staff in 2022. Early Voting sites will increase to ten minimum sites in 2022. Absentee ballots will now be canvassed before Election Day adding 40 days of ballot canvassing while our staff is preparing Early Voting and Election Day operations. No fault absentees and Same Day registration will likely be passed by voters this fall adding more responsibilities to our staff. Without permanent staffing increases, we will have to compensate using Shoebox funds in 2022 to bring in inefficient temporary staff. The need for constant re-training and the short term nature of this staff does not allow us to adequately cover the long term needs of the voters of Onondaga County.
Finally, if we are forced to use Shoebox money for temporary staff we are only passing a larger bill down the road. Our ImageCast machines originally purchased in 2008 are reaching the end of their life. Our extended service agreement runs out in the middle of 2022. We need to consider a capital improvement to replace these ImageCast scanners. This will cost approximately $2.5 million for a complete conversion to modern tabulators. The Board of Elections will have approximately $1 million in grant monies to off set some of this purchase. However, if we spend this grant money as we do now to cover staffing and training that number will be reduced.
Thank you,
Dustin M. Czarny
Onondaga County Elections Commissioner (D)
Along party lines, Onondaga County Legislature passes redistricting commission – WRVO
” the only reason this is happening now is so the GOP can pass partisan maps before the end of the year.“ Because if Democrats take control of the Legislature, then we must have true bipartisan maps because the redistricting commission will be 3-3,”
Voter registration deadline quickly approaching – WRVO
“We are seeing an uptick in voter registration over the last couple of months,” said Czarny. “But it’s nowhere near like what it is during a presidential year.”
Dustin M. Czarny 