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Sleepy Hollow Elections See Steady Turnout

IRVINGTON, N.Y. – Doreen Sirico couldn't estimate how many voters had come to the Main Street School auditorium to cast their ballots in Tuesday's school elections.

“It's been a steady stream,” she said shortly before noon, adding that she had been sitting outside the auditorium doors for three hours.

Residents in both the Public Schools of the Tarrytowns District and Irvington Union Free School District are voting for Board of Education members and school budgets.

Irvington Union Free School District voters are casting ballots in a hotly contested election. Incumbents John Dawson and Robyne Camp face challenges from Robyn Kerner, Maria Kashkin and Della Lenz. School officials are proposing a $51.2 million budget that would raise the tax rate by 3 percent.

For the Public Schools of the Tarrytowns school board, incumbents B. Joseph Lillis, Craig Laub and Mimi Godwin are running unopposed. The proposed $66.83 million budget would raise the rate by 1.97 percent for Tarrytown residents and 3.12 percent for Sleepy Hollow residents. Tuesday's vote also includes a proposition to buy two school buses.

Tarrytown Election Inspector Joan Ward reported that 112 residents had turned out to vote so far at Washington Irving Intermediate School. Voters had been filing in and out of the school auditorium since the polls opened, poll workers noted while a class gathered in the room to discuss whether students thought their parents had voted.

Ward said the voter turnout was probably lighter than normal because the Board of Education race was uncontested. A steady rain shower that fell over the village probably contributed too, she said.

“The weather always affects [turnout]," Ward said.

Officials at Winfeld L. Morse Elementary School in Sleepy Hollow, also in the Public Schools of the Tarrytowns district, reported 93 people had voted just before noon in the school's cafeteria as kids picked up their lunches and weaved through registering voters.

Irvington school board candidate Della Lenz was standing on the sidewalk in front of the Main Street School and in front of a sign advising campaigners that they were 100 feet from the polling station. Lenz said she was listening to people's thoughts and encouraging them to vote in Tuesday's elections.

Lenz said the campaign season had been great.

“For the most part, everyone took the high road,” she said. “Everybody respects each other. I know all of them, both in and outside school, and I think we did the best job we could.”

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