District Wants Polling Places Out of Schools

Paramus voters traditionally cast their ballots in the closest public school on Election Day. The school district would like them to go somewhere else.

The district has petitioned the Bergen County Board of Elections to move the polling places out of the schools.

Superintendent Joseph Lupo said many of the schools don't have enough parking for voters, a problem likely to be exacerbated by the greater turnout expected this year, with a presidential race on the ballot.

"In some cases, especially the elementary schools—well, most of our schools—the parking is terrible," Lupo said.

Lupo added that it was difficult to operate schools with voters constantly entering and exiting the buildings. There are a number of alternative sites voters could use, Lupo said, including , the and the Borough fire houses.

Eileen DeBari, chairwoman of the Board of Elections, said it would be difficult to move the polling places anywhere else. State laws favor using polling places, she added.

The requirements for polling places are stringent, Borough Clerk Toni Falato said. Each must be handicap-accessible and be within or 1,000 feet from a voting district.

"Every year I have to do a new survey of the polling places and measure every doorway, ceiling height, protrusions from the wall, look for ramps, bathroom accessibility etc.," she said.

Currently the schools house elections for all 20 of the Borough's voting districts.

"We're always open for discussion," DeBari said. "We want to be good neighbors, but when I looked in Paramus and every district was in a school, it's pretty impossible, quite honestly. There's simply not enough alternative sites in Paramus for another location."

DeBari estimated that 70% of the towns in Bergen County use schools for polling places. She suggested that districts could close for Election Day, in anticipation of the larger presidential election turnout.

The four-member Board of Elections would have to vote to move the polling places, but DeBari said any change was unlikely.

"Right now, I can't foresee us changing any of the sites," she said.