TROY – The city will not host a third early voting site this fall as the Rensselaer County Legislature’s Republican majority in a committee meeting rejected the Democrats’ proposal and opted to stick with the selected sites at the Brunswick and Schodack town halls.

The effort to add a Troy early voting site started when the Troy City Council voted unanimously to pay $7,500 to cover half of the estimated $15,000 in costs to open the polling place from Saturday, Oct. 26, to Sunday, Nov. 3. Election day is Nov. 5.

City Council Republicans and Democrats supported hosting a site somewhere in the North Central neighborhood, which is the city’s poorest. But a location wasn’t identified.

County Legislature Chairman Michael Stammel, R-Rensselaer, said the bipartisan county Board of Elections had selected the Brunswick and Schodack polling places. Stammel said school districts generally don’t want to host voting places and it’s difficult to find polling stations that meet state requirements for handicapped accessibility.

“They couldn’t find a location in Troy,” Stammel said.

The chairman noted that there are not early voting locations in the county’s eastern towns and that residents in his hometown of Rensselaer also wanted an early polling place. In addition, Stammel said, adding a third polling place would occur past the the deadline for getting state funding to operate the site.

The County Legisalture’s Democrats were not pleased by the Rules Committee decision. They had argued that the Brunswick and Schodack sites are inaccessible for residents who don’t have a vehicle to drive to them.

Deputy Minority Leader Cindy Doran, R-Troy, said an early voting location in Troy would enable voters in the county’s largest municipality to have easy access to cast their ballots.

“The early voting initiative was intended to make it easier for voters to cast their ballot. Travel to these sites by public transportation is, in fact, a hindrance, and not a help to voters”, said Legislator Mark Fleming, D-Troy, in a statement.

Brunswick Town Hall is located two miles beyond the last CDTA bus stop on Route 7 and Schodack Town Hall is only accessible by a bus route running out of downtown Albany across the Hudson River, the Democrats said.

Stammel noted that county residents still can vote by absentee ballot as they have in the past.