Voting Underway in Special Election for Westchester County Executive

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By James Steigerwald and EJ Speight

Voters are electing a new Westchester County Executive this week. Two candidates are running in the special election Tuesday to replace George Latimer, who stepped down after being elected to Congress. The winner of this election will finish out Latimer’s term through the end of this year.

Democrat Ken Jenkins was formerly Deputy County executive and has been serving in the top job on an interim basis. Republican Christine Sculti is deputy commissioner of the County Board of Elections and served as chief advisor to former County Executive Rob Astorino.

Early voting has been underway since Feb. 1. We visited the Mt. Pleasant Community Center in Valhalla, one early voting site, to talk to voters.

Francesca Hagadus-McHale is vice chair of the Mount Pleasant Democratic Committee. She voted Feb. 1 with her son, since they both had the day off.

“Early voting has been such a relief,” she said. “We notice that in some villages there’s only one day to vote for a village trustee. That doesn’t work because some people have commitments, some people don’t realize there’s an election that day.”

Another voter named Mark (who declined to provide his last name) said he also appreciated early voting.

“It’s just important to vote. I was kind of not really aware of it until last minute, so when I saw that it was up, I decided to cast a vote,” he said. Early voting “just gives us more flexibility. We’re out running errands on a Saturday so we can stop in and vote, versus taking time out of a work day.”

Lucy, who also did not provide her last name, said she only became an American citizen a few years ago and believed voting was important.

“It means a lot. It’s a privilege to vote and pick your representatives,” she said.

Edward Specht of Hawthorne said he believed voting was a fundamental right, but some people take it for granted.

“We have the freedom to vote. A lot of other countries, you do not have the freedom to vote. That’s one of our greatest rights and I think everyone should take advantage of it,” he said. “Sometimes people don’t vote because they just feel it’s not necessary, but every vote does count. I think it’s very important because it’s going to be the direction of what the people want for this county. Everyone should come out and vote, and that’s why I came out.”

Specht said he had not always believed in early voting.

“I was always in favor of just having that one day election,” Specht remarked. “But everyone’s life is so much more complex, and having the opportunity to vote the week ahead of time, it allows us to adjust and actually exercise our right to vote. Because if I’m not going to be in town that day, it just makes it easier.”

Early voting ends Feb. 9. Election Day is later this week, on Tuesday, Feb. 11.

To read this article on Pleasantville Press, the student journalism website, click here.

See schedules, locations, and other voting information on the County Board of Elections website.

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