School budget votes will be held via mail on June 9

An executive order issued by Gov. Andrew Cuomo Friday has set school board elections and budget votes for Tuesday, June 9.

The election will be conducted entirely via mail, with every qualified voter set to receive an absentee ballot with return postage paid to participate, according to the executive order.

“We’ve made great progress to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus, but we still don’t know when this pandemic will end and we don’t want to undo all the work we’ve already done to flatten the curve,” Mr. Cuomo said in a statement. “We don’t want to put New Yorkers in a situation where they are possibly putting their health at risk, so we are delaying school board elections and conducting them by mail and delaying all local special district and village elections to help limit any unnecessary exposure to this virus among both voters and poll workers.”

In March, Gov. Cuomo signed an executive order to postpone the local school district budget votes, originally slated for May 15, until after June 1. Most districts were unable to adopt budgets before the pandemic hit and face challenges as most fiscal years begin July 1.

School board candidates have until May 10 to file petitions, according to the executive order.

Much of the voting in New York’s primary election scheduled for June 23 could take place via absentee voting as well. Last month, Gov. Cuomo announced that the Democratic presidential primary in New York was canceled by the New York State Board of Elections due to concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

The primary had originally been scheduled for April before Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order pushing it back to June 23.

Despite the presidential primary being cancelled, primary elections will still be held in state and congressional level races. Mr. Cuomo indicated that every registered voter would receive an application for an absentee ballot in the mail for the primary election.