Mary McTamaney

Our community has been awash in election news on every front: conversations among neighbors, statistics constantly running out from car radio speakers, pop-up screens on our phones and around-the-clock coverage on every television. One contentious topic has been election security. Will people and ballots be safe from meddling by those who want to change election results? When my husband and I voted at the Newburgh Activity Center on October 24th, the voting process was smooth, friendly and quick. Everyone expressed gratitude to the poll workers for being there to uphold a long tradition of citizen franchise.

It has been like that in my hometown since I first voted at age 21 (franchise at age 18 hadn’t been passed yet). Neighbors gather, exchange small talk, sometimes catch up on family news and the health of friends as they line up and then silently follow voting instructions. It has been like that since Newburghers first cast local ballots to choose neighbors to be their leaders.

I recently discovered a precious file in city archives that chronicles elections in the the Village of Newburgh (we incorporated as a village in 1800 and then as a city in 1865). It contains the certifications of twenty village elections in Newburgh between 1838 and 1865. In longhand, the elections results are summarized and the election inspectors’ signatures appear testifying to the authenticity of the results. Each year in that first half of the nineteenth century, Newburghers walked or rode horses or in wagons down to the heart of the village, the corner of Water and Third Streets, to the Orange Hotel where elections were held in the hotel lobby. The Orange Hotel was a central meeting place for private and public events in those days. General Lafayette was welcomed back to Newburgh there in 1824 and waved to large crowds from the hotel balcony. Dances and concerts and testimonial dinners happened there. Each year, on a spring day, it also became the polling place for the village.

In the first half of the nineteenth century, Newburgh elected these leaders each year: seven village trustees, two or three assessors, three or four fire wardens, one tax collector and one treasurer. As years passed, election for three trustees of the common schools was added, held on the same day. There were three to five election inspectors who signed the official affidavit after the votes were counted.

Vote counts were not noted except in the school board elections after 1852 when Newburgh adopted free public education. That school board vote processed 93 ballots. Otherwise, just the winners were noted for municipal jobs.

The village had a population of 8,500 to almost 10,000 in the 1830’s through 1850’s. Not every adult was enfranchised, certainly not women or people of color. Was there much debate among neighbors over candidates?

Were desires for this village very different among the candidates? Time at the Newburgh Free Library’s newspaper archives might tell us if we wind through the years of early microfilm.

I wish for another folder to appear in the old files – one that tallies early Newburghers’ votes in state and federal elections. That balance sheet would also be fascinating to see and learn. Today, I’m just lifted up by the image of neighbors carrying on the long tradition of entering a familiar doorway together and casting ballots to guide their futures the way they see fit.