Early voting? Sorry, not here: Siller protests Board of Elections decision

Early voting is coming to a town near you. That’s right, near, but not in your town.

Supervisor Gerry Siller announced at Tuesday’s Town Board work session that Shelter Island won’t have a polling place open for early voting for the Nov. 3 election.

Later in the day, Mr. Siller sent a letter to the Suffolk County Board of Election commissioners to express his opposition to the decision and ask that early voting take place on the Island.

The nearest place to vote early is Southold, beginning Oct. 24.

Mr. Siller said he was also contacting all the elected officials who represent the Island to ask for their help.

In his letter to Anita Katz, the BOE’s Democratic commissioner, and Nick LaLota the Republican commissioner, Mr. Siller wrote: “We have been advised that the ‘expansion’ of the early voting program will actually result in the closing of the one existing early voting location in the Town of Shelter Island. Shelter Island is unique in that it is an isolated location accessible only by ferry. Having no on-Island early voting location will unfairly disenfranchise many of the voters on Shelter Island. Voting will be particularly difficult for the elderly and the infirm. In other towns, the easy access to additional polling places makes consolidating polling locations a reasonable proposition, but the particular characteristics of Shelter Island simply do not fit the ordinary pattern. There needs to be an early voting location on Shelter Island.”