Voters Guide 2010: Polling Places and Machines

It's Election Day. Time to head out to the poll to choose political candidates for various national and state offices. Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. In Hauppauge, there are several polling districts and locations within Hauppauge Union Free School District and beyond, dividing largely by elementary schools:

• Forest Brook Elementary School
• Pines Elementary School
• Bretton Woods Elementary School
• Hauppauge Middle School -for residents located in the central area of town, and southern portions near the Long Island Expressway
• Branch Brook Elementary School - for the eastern portion of Hauppauge, north of Townline Road
•  Mount Pleasant Elementary School

Residents who head to the polls to vote this Election Day will find new voting machines and ballots to cast their vote.

Gone are the curtained areas, mechanical levers of the past. The new machines consist of paper ballots which must be filled out, placed in privacy booth and scanners as part of a federally mandated changeover under the Help American Vote Act, a federal act put in place after the 2000 presidential elections.  New York is the last state to implement the changes.

After voters check-in with election officials, they will proceed to booths to fill in the ovals for their choice candidates on the election ballots. Then, to ensure privacy, residents are instructed to put the ballots in a paper sleeve as they carry them over to the scanning machines.

 Polling places with multiple electoral districts will have machines designated for each district, which will not be able to accept ballots from other districts.

To find out where to vote, click here. For more information, call the Board of Elections at (631) 852-4500.