From time to time I enjoy the honor of guiding candidates who seek public office. Win or lose the opportunity to help aspirants make a difference and become stronger candidates and better at what they do makes the task worth my time. At the end of last year and over this month and last, I found another electoral task to delve into: My Community Board 13 tasked me with running the election process for its leadership during COVID-19.

Since meetings took place over Zoom, it involved creating a new process for voting. The members of the board approved a process that involved voting by mail. Since votes, including how members voted, must remain public records, the ballots included the name of each member. The board staff mailed ballots with return envelopes. Members marked their ballots and placed each ballot, colored by the office for easy sorting before counting, in a return envelope for mail or drop-off at the community board office. Upon receipt each got place in a sealed carton through a slot.

On Thursday afternoon, the community board district manager delivered the ballot box to my home. At the appointed early evening hour over a Zoom at my outside office, I unsealed the ballot box and placed the envelopes on the “desk”, opened each and sorted the five colored ballots into five piles. Next I went through each set to count the votes; in no case was there a write-in, and in every case the nominated candidate’s box was marked. 37 unanimous votes in each case. The process took but 50 minutes.

Much less convoluted than than counting in the June Primary where result got certified last week. I should note the December counting process involved additional candidates.

When the next (Community Board 13) election occurs in 2022, all involved hope it involved in-person voting where we get to know the results shortly after we vote.