Some Massapequa Park Village residents have recently received letters concerning the village election that took place in March, 2002. These letters did not come from Village of Massapequa Park, and to date, the village has been unsuccessful in identifying the source of these letters.

The letters were issued from a post office box in Bethpage. They begin: Dear Massapequa Park Resident, According to public record your signature appears next to your name as having voted in the Massapequa Park election for Trustee on Tuesday, March 19, 2002. If this is incorrect, and you did not vote, please check the appropriate box on the enclosed post card, to rectify the error. Also, please take a few seconds to answer the other questions pertaining to Village Elections...

The other questions include whether or not a photo I.D. should be required before a person votes, whether or not the village should use "modern voting machines," and whether or not the village should "go back to three polling places, as in the past."

The nature of the letter itself, and these questions in particular, is confusing at best, according to Village Administrator William Colfer. For one thing, in the past, the village had four polling locations, not three. They were located at Birch Lane School, Eastlake School, Hawthorne School and Village Hall. For more than 15 years now, polling has taken place at Village Hall only, largely because the cost of having four polling places would be excessive.

"If you were to have voting in four locations, you would need four election inspectors for each election district," Colfer explained. "You would also have to rent voting machines for each election district and provide tables and chairs. The cost of running an election would quadruple, maybe even more than that."

In the past couple of years, approximately 2,000 people have shown up to vote, up from the usual 400 or 500 residents that had voted in prior elections. "Even with 2,000 voters, it doesn't warrant that type of a cost," Colfer said.

Regarding the questions about the type of voting machines used, and what type of I.D. is required to vote, those are issues controlled by NY State Law and by the Nassau County Board of Elections, which is required to operate under NY State Law, according to Colfer.

"We have no control over how modern the voting machines are," Colfer explained. "They are the same machines they have been using in New York State for as long as I can remember. These issues are decided by the state, so to change them would require an act of the state legislature, which is highly unlikely."

Colfer added, "The voting process is meant to be easy. If we had to proof everyone coming in the door, how much longer would it take everyone to vote?"

Colfer said he was unaware of any problems with records being incorrect in the past, and he said he had no reason to think they were incorrect in this year's election. "This is a small community. Most of our election inspectors, for village elections especially, are longtime residents. They are the same people all the time. I could stand at the door of Village Hall, like I do every Election Day, and recognize the majority of people coming in the door by sight."

As with any unsolicited mail, the village recommends that residents be cautious in replying without further information.