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VOL. 33 NO. 14
Rediscovering your passions
On Long Island By Volume and Transa ctions*
Will ‘blanks’ decide election outcomes By LAURA LANE llane@liherald.com
This is the fourth story in a series exploring the complexities of elections, to provide a better understanding of one of Americans’ most precious privileges, the right to vote.
Roni Chastain/Herald
Honoring the Gold Coast’s nonprofits Five nonprofit organizations were honored for their service by the Gold Coast Business Association at its Business in Bloom 2024 event. More photos, Page 3.
Meet Sea Cliff’s newest trustee George Williams to bring new perspective to Village Hall By WILL SHEELINE wsheeline@liherald.com
The Village of Sea Cliff recently welcomed George Williams as its newest trustee, bringing a wealth of diverse experiences and a strong commitment to community service to his new role. Williams, a native of Oklahoma City, embarked on a journey that led him from New England to New York City before settling in Sea Cliff 37 years ago. His path included service in the Navy’s power program, where he operated nuclear plants for submarines and aircraft carriers. “The Navy straightened me right out,” Williams said. “And I never went to sea; I spent my entire tour on land.” After his military service, Williams pursued
higher education, eventually earning degrees in theoretical physics from SUNY Albany and delving into fundamental research and academia for a decade. A fortuitous chance led him to Wall Street, where he spent another decade before transitioning to a professorship at Webb Institute, a private engineering college in Glen Cove. Throughout his career, Williams said that he maintained an active involvement in community service, serving as a library trustee for six years and participating in various nonprofit organizations, including a Shetland sheepdog rescue. His dedication to community service caught the attention of the Civic Progress Committee, which ultimately encouraged him to run as a trustee for Sea Cliff. Williams expressed enthusiCONTINUED ON PAGE 2
The number of unaffiliated voters — people who do not belong to a political party — has been on the rise in recent years, and those voters have sometimes determined the outcomes of elections. In Nassau County, the number of unaffiliated voters, or blanks, as they are called, is almost equal to the number of re gistered Republicans. Although there is no space to vote as a blank on a ballot, as there is for a Republican or Democrat, the Nassau County Board of Elections can nonetheless calculate how blanks vote, and what effect they have on a race. Election officials do so by calculating who voted by party affiliation, and by comparing the overall turnout with
the number of votes each candidate receives, James Scheuerman, the Democratic commissioner of the Board of Elections, explained. “It’s more of an art than a science,” Scheuer man said. “The thought is that the Democrats do well on the Democrats and the Republicans do well on the Republicans, and the blank voters go where they go.” The majority of voters in the 3rd Congressional District, which encompasses the Nor th Shore of Nassau County and parts of Queens, have trad i t i o n a l ly b e e n registered Democ r at s. S o wh e n Re p u bl i c a n George Santos won the race for Congress in 2022, handily defeating Democrat Robert Zimmerman, political observers were unsure what happened. “Voters who are unaffiliated can swing elections,” Scheuerman said. “Blanks had an effect on the outcome of the Zimmerman-Santos race.” It’s important to pay attention to the unaffiliated voters, CONTINUED ON PAGE 10