Something significant has happened in Wayne County over the last two months. The Wayne County Board of Supervisors recently approved moving election commissioners there from part-time to full-time status.
It’s a change that understandably doesn’t drive a lot of attention or buzz. While Election Day is significant to a lot of people — the day-to-day work of Election Commissioners is often under appreciated.
We recently caught up with Mindy Robinson, who has served as deputy commissioner for a number of years, and took over as Republican Commissioner when the changeover from part-time to full-time occurred. “We haven’t even had time to let it sink in,” Robinson explained of the change, which allows them to be better prepared for their long list of responsibilities. As quickly as the supervisors moved to go ‘full-time’ for its election commissioners, Robinson and her counterpart on the Democratic side, were already in full-swing election mode.
It’s worth noting the oddity of a county Wayne’s size having part-time election commissioners. Several counties in the Finger Lakes that have 50-75% fewer voters have full-time commissioners, and according to Robinson, there’s only about 11 left that she could find in New York State. “You have to have someone in there five days a week, there are law changes, and you’ve got to be fluent in all the law changes, and you need to be able to handle all of the voter updates that come in too, and whatever else might come at you. And then there’s early-voting and Election Day,” she explained.
Much of this debate about part-time vs. full-time commissioners came after Election Day 2023, when unofficial results were delayed by approximately 12 hours. While results were not compromised — an error with SD cards that were used at polling sites created a delay at two — which led to the delay of unofficial results being shared everywhere.
Robinson said in hindsight, their office could have released most…
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