In an effort to rationalize the current "crazy quilt" of election days, Nassau County Executive Thomas R. Suozzi has proposed state legislation to dramatically consolidate special district election dates in Nassau County from the current 23 days in nine separate months to two - general election day in November and school board/budget vote day in May. Suozzi appealed to the Nassau County Delegation of the New York State Legislature to sponsor the legislation and aggressively push for its passage.

"Participating in the democratic process shouldn't be this hard - or confusing," said Suozzi. "This crazy quilt of a schedule has resulted in anemic voter participation. Consolidating election dates to two days during the year will shine a light onto the entire process, spur voter participation, increase accountability and ensure taxpayer money is being spent wisely."

Suozzi's proposed legislation establishes two dates for elections of officers, budget votes and propositions of special districts in Nassau County. Special districts covered by this bill include fire districts (which currently hold their elections on the second Tuesday of December), improvement districts (including water and sanitary districts), and four kinds of library districts. The legislation provides that:

• school districts will continue to administer their own elections and budget votes, in addition to the elections and budget votes of school districts libraries and free association libraries (two of the current four types of library districts that hold elections in Nassau County) on the third Tuesday of May, when school district elections are currently held;

• the Nassau County Board of Elections will administer the election of fire districts, improvement districts, special legislative act library districts, and library funding districts with the general election in November (primary day will continue in September with no additional elections proposed for that day).

The proposed legislation clearly states that candidates for special district offices will not be identified by political party on the nominating petition or ballot. In addition, candidates will be listed on a separate part of the ballot.

Suozzi said his proposal achieves two important goals. First, fewer election days will result in less confusion, making the democratic process more user-friendly and inevitably leading to significantly higher voter turnout. And second, centralizing administration of special district elections to the Nassau County Board of Elections will result in uniformity across elections, including filing deadlines and poll hours, and save the expense of running separate elections as is currently the case. In addition, by shifting administration to the Board of Elections, there would be more transparency and less opportunity for fraud, he said.

"This proposal simply makes sense. Democracy is based on voter participation. So why not hold elections that impact taxpayers - even for the smallest of governments - on a day when voters know there is an election?" asked Suozzi. "This proposal will maximize voter turn-out, reduce the cost of running separate elections and end the inappropriate practice of holding elections in place like a special district commissioner's kitchen."