Suffolk County elections: Officials predict on-time results on Tuesday
Polling station on Long Island. Credit: Tom Lambui
Suffolk County results in Tuesday's general election are expected to be reported on time, county officials said, after connectivity issues last year pushed the release of results until after midnight.
Suffolk County Republican Board of Elections commissioner Betty Manzella said the county completed security and software upgrades in August, which required certification from New York State. The system now appears to be working properly for Election Day.
“Working with Suffolk County IT [Information Technology Department], we have implemented additional security updates and have successfully tested the connectivity,” she said in an email. “Barring any unforeseen circumstances, we do not anticipate any delays.”
Manzella declined to specify what upgrades have been made. She said it would be “counterintuitive” to discuss security measures.
“We can only state that security measures are never ‘done’ but are a continuing process,” she said.
Election workers in November 2022 encountered severe slowdowns in attempting to upload memory cards from voting machines to computer servers at more than two dozen secure locations around the county. That led election officials to turn to a contingency plan to physically drive the cards to the Board of Elections offices in Yaphank.
Workers collected 1,446 memory cards from the upload locations, which delayed the reporting of some results until the early hours of the following morning.
County officials later said there was no direct connection between the delay and the ransomware attack on county systems discovered Sept. 8, 2022. Chief deputy county executive Lisa Black last year said the county installed an additional firewall on one of the BOE servers following the attack but that it didn’t cause the slowdown.
The attack did not compromise the Board of Elections network but prompted the county to take down the election board’s public-facing website.
Black on Thursday said the county last year had “compensating controls” in place following the attack to ensure the system was secure while the BOE awaited state approvals to institute the software upgrades. Now that those upgrades are in place, no delays are anticipated, she said.
“I’d say we're ready for traditional Election Night competition,” she said. “I would go as far as to say that Suffolk County will be faster at reporting the numbers than Nassau this year.”
Suffolk County GOP Chairman Jesse Garcia, who is also the Hispanic Outreach coordinator at the BOE, said voters should have “full faith and confidence” in the BOE which he said acted appropriately last year.
“The job of the BOE is to provide accurate information, not expedited information,” Garcia said.
Legis. Anthony Piccirillo (R-Holtsville), who chairs a legislative committee probing the source of the attack, was critical of last year’s delays but optimistic that Tuesday's results will be on time.
“I'm really happy that the progress was made, and I have full faith that Election Night will be a success,” he said. “We have very competent people … things happen in technology, but they've been remedied and I'm looking forward to a successful Election Day.”
Suffolk County results in Tuesday's general election are expected to be reported on time, county officials said, after connectivity issues last year pushed the release of results until after midnight.
Suffolk County Republican Board of Elections commissioner Betty Manzella said the county completed security and software upgrades in August, which required certification from New York State. The system now appears to be working properly for Election Day.
“Working with Suffolk County IT [Information Technology Department], we have implemented additional security updates and have successfully tested the connectivity,” she said in an email. “Barring any unforeseen circumstances, we do not anticipate any delays.”
Manzella declined to specify what upgrades have been made. She said it would be “counterintuitive” to discuss security measures.
“We can only state that security measures are never ‘done’ but are a continuing process,” she said.
Election workers in November 2022 encountered severe slowdowns in attempting to upload memory cards from voting machines to computer servers at more than two dozen secure locations around the county. That led election officials to turn to a contingency plan to physically drive the cards to the Board of Elections offices in Yaphank.
Workers collected 1,446 memory cards from the upload locations, which delayed the reporting of some results until the early hours of the following morning.
County officials later said there was no direct connection between the delay and the ransomware attack on county systems discovered Sept. 8, 2022. Chief deputy county executive Lisa Black last year said the county installed an additional firewall on one of the BOE servers following the attack but that it didn’t cause the slowdown.
The attack did not compromise the Board of Elections network but prompted the county to take down the election board’s public-facing website.
Black on Thursday said the county last year had “compensating controls” in place following the attack to ensure the system was secure while the BOE awaited state approvals to institute the software upgrades. Now that those upgrades are in place, no delays are anticipated, she said.
“I’d say we're ready for traditional Election Night competition,” she said. “I would go as far as to say that Suffolk County will be faster at reporting the numbers than Nassau this year.”
Suffolk County GOP Chairman Jesse Garcia, who is also the Hispanic Outreach coordinator at the BOE, said voters should have “full faith and confidence” in the BOE which he said acted appropriately last year.
“The job of the BOE is to provide accurate information, not expedited information,” Garcia said.
Legis. Anthony Piccirillo (R-Holtsville), who chairs a legislative committee probing the source of the attack, was critical of last year’s delays but optimistic that Tuesday's results will be on time.
“I'm really happy that the progress was made, and I have full faith that Election Night will be a success,” he said. “We have very competent people … things happen in technology, but they've been remedied and I'm looking forward to a successful Election Day.”
Vera Chinese joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.
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