SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY — Legislators discussed security measures for voting in the Sullivan County Government Center during a September 3 meeting of the government services committee.

The lobby of the Sullivan County Government Center serves as a polling place, as well as one of two locations where early voting takes place. During this period, standard security screenings are suspended. This has led legislators to debate the idea of keeping security active while the lobby is used for voting, requiring voters to go through the security process before they can reach their polling place.

Legislator Catherine Scott raised the issue after chair of the committee Nicholas Salamone Jr. read a report from the Board of Elections. Scott reminded committee members that elections were coming up, and that security should be a topic of discussion.

“With elections coming up, what happened in June [during the primary elections] was security was suspended, and I don’t think we should be suspending security for anyone coming in the building,” Scott said. “And I think we all need to go on the record and say, you know, how we each feel about that because we have the ability to make that decision.”

Scott said that due to incidents in the past, it would be shortsighted to suspend security during the election season. Legislator Matthew McPhillips agreed, saying that the safety and comfort of employees should come first.

“There have been incidents of people doing things where the sheriff’s department has had to intervene,” Scott said. “Suspending security is highly irresponsible. It disrespects the people who work in this building every single day, who feel more comfortable coming to work because people are being screened.”

“We have a policy regarding being screened before we come in,” Matthew McPhillips said. “We’ve done our due diligence, and we’ve listened to our employees, and we wanted to make them feel comfortable at work, and I think we should stick to them. And that includes everybody that works within the building, including board of elections.”

Legislative vice-chair Luis Alvarez said that he agreed, and that the building belongs to the government, and therefore the needs of all the members of the government should be taken into consideration.

“I consider that it is our building, it is the responsibility of every legislator sitting here to ensure the safety and security of the people in this building,” Alvarez said. “You’re asking us permission to use the building to vote, and you must follow our rules.”

Legislator Brian McPhillips, who also agreed that security should not be suspended, said that this idea touches on a wider issue of relocating government offices into other buildings in Monticello so that agencies like the Board of Elections can have independent offices that can establish their own security protocols.

“Part of the bigger picture is probably beneficial to not just Board of Elections, but to the building itself, is to find a better location for Board of Elections and not have it be in this building,” Brian McPhillips said. “This way they can have a standalone spot. They can have a place that they can welcome the public to. They can have their own security rules. They can have their own storage. They can have their own identity within the [county] seat.”

Salamone then said that a resolution should be drafted and voted on in the legislature’s executive committee. Legislator Terry Blosser-Bernardo said that before that happens the county should check with the state Board of Elections.

Scott was unmoved. She didn’t care about the legal ramifications, she said; her primary concern was the safety of the employees.

“They can file an injunction, but [if] the state wants to make an issue of it and they want to fight, then we fight them,” Scott said. “The people who work here are worth it.”

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonprofit law and public policy institution, “New York does not prohibit law enforcement at polling places; however, the federal and state prohibitions on intimidation apply to police and other peace officers.”

The Brennan Center also says that “Obstructing, impeding or otherwise interfering with access to any polling place or elections office, or otherwise interfering with any voter in a manner that causes delay in the voting process,” is prohibited under the law and considered voter intimidation.

The resolution to ask that security remain in place while the government center operates as a polling place will go before the executive committee on Thursday, September 17.