With Election Day fewer than eight weeks away, the League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island, and the North Fork will cover the East End with voter information tables this month and has issued a schedule of debates.
The league has set Sept. 28 at 7 p.m. for a virtual debate on Southampton’s SEA-TV between State Senator Anthony Palumbo and his Democratic Party challenger, Chris Murray, an attorney who has led the boards of Citizens Campaign for the Environment and Suffolk Community College.
On Sept. 30, the league will host a virtual forum on SEA-TV called Voting Rights and the 2026 Midterms: Election Challenges, Threats, and Integrity. Andrea Gabor, the local league chapter’s government committee co-chairwoman and a professor of business journalism at Baruch College, will lead a discussion that will feature David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, and Jerry Goldfeder, director of the Fordham Law School Voting Rights and Democracy Project.
Representative Nick LaLota, who is seeking a third term in the House of Representatives, and his Democratic challenger, Christopher Gallant, a military pilot and firefighter, have been invited to participate in a virtual debate on Oct. 5 on SEA-TV that has yet to be confirmed.
The league will not host a debate between Assemblyman Tommy John Schiavoni, who is seeking a second term, and his Republican challenger, Stephen Kiely, a former Shelter Island Town attorney. Mr. Schiavoni defeated Mr. Kiely in the 2024 election with 56.4 percent of the vote to Mr. Kiely’s 43.6 percent.
As for the information tables for National Voter Registration Day, which is Tuesday, they are tentatively to be outside the Montauk Post Office; at the East Hampton Library from 9 to 11 a.m.; outside Schiavoni’s Market in Sag Harbor from 9 to noon; at the Floyd Memorial Library in Greenport from 9:30 to noon; at the East Hampton Healthcare Foundation from 10 to noon; outside the East Hampton Post Office, One Stop Market in East Hampton, the Bridgehampton Post Office, and the Red Horse Market in Southampton from 11 to 1; at the Westhampton Free Library in Westhampton Beach from 11 to 2; at the Shelter Island Library from 11:30 to 1:30; at Peconic Landing in Greenport from 11:30 to 2:30; outside Stop & Shop in East Hampton Village from 1 to 3; at CVS in Southampton Village from 3 to 5, and at the Riverhead Library and Stop & Shop in Riverhead from 4 to 6.
The league will distribute voter registration forms and absentee ballot and early mail ballot applications at these locations as well as information on the offices up for election on Nov. 3; instructions on using new voting machines; Suffolk County’s early voting dates, polling locations, and times; the league’s 2026 Directory of Public Officials, and its upcoming candidate debates on SEA-TV.
The league will also have a table at Southampton Town’s Anti-Bias Task Force picnic at Red Creek Park in Hampton Bays on Sept. 19 and on Long Wharf at Sag Harbor’s HarborFest on Sept. 19 and 20.
Early voting in Suffolk County begins on Oct. 24 and continues through Nov. 1.
The Suffolk Board of Elections’ mail-in deadline for receipt of voter registration forms is Oct. 24. The mail-in or online deadline for the board of elections to receive an absentee ballot application or early mail-in voting application is also Oct. 24, while the postmark deadline for the return of the absentee ballots to the poll site or by mail to the board of elections is Nov. 3, Election Day.
Voters who are issued an absentee ballot or early mail ballot may no longer vote in person on a voting machine during early voting or on Election Day and may only vote by affidavit ballot at a poll site.
Voter registration forms are also available at the New York State Board of Elections website at elections.ny.gov. The Suffolk Board of Elections can be contacted with questions at 631-8524500 or suffolkvotes.com.
