Ravitz to Leave Elections Board For Red Cross

By ARI PAUL

Board of Elections Executive Director John Ravitz is leaving the agency, but he believes the state is on its way to coming into compliance with the Federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA).

JOHN RAVITZ: Cites vote machine progress.

Mr. Ravitz, a former social worker who spent 12 years in the State Assembly before taking the helm at the Elections Board in 2003, will step down Oct. 12 to become the CEO at the Westchester Red Cross.

'Kept This On-Track'

"I don't say this lightly," he said in a Sept. 28 phone interview. "I think we've been leading the state, keeping this HAVA train on-track. I think we have really done what we can to have an opportunity for the public to see our decision-making in terms of when we do select a new voting system."

The U.S. Department of Justice sued the state in March of 2006 for not complying with HAVA's original deadline of the midterm elections of 2006. The state reached a compromise with the DOJ that called for a partial implementation of electronic machines for disabled voters in the midterm elections in order to secure Federal funding.

Mr. Ravitz said that the Red Cross presented the opportunity to him and that he was impressed with its staff. He said the move would bring him closer to the duties he had as a social worker: "Helping people on a daily basis."

The BOE has not yet found a replacement, but even if it has not chosen a new leader by the November elections, Mr. Ravitz is confident that it will continue down the right path.

"This agency is not about one person," he said.