Temporary County Phone Line Failure Won’t Impact Election

MAYVILLE – An apparent internal failure of the Chautauqua County Courthouse telephone system did not and will not have any impact on today’s election. Telephone lines were inoperative in the Courthouse until just before 4 p.m.
Democratic Commissioner of Elections Norm Green, who discussed the telephone gaff with WNYNewsNow this afternoon. As of shortly before 4 p.m. the telephone system was back on line and operating.
Green said the system failure will have “zero impact” on the election and that the Chautauqua County Board of Elections has been prepared for any eventuality.
“We’re prepared to run elections with flashlights,” Green said. “We are absolutely prepared for any eventuality. We think about all this stuff.”
Chautauqua County Sheriff Joe Gerace said he had not been made aware of any issues for the Sheriff’s Department.
“I am not in the office. It has not been brought to my attention. We have separate circuits so I don’t know.”
He said a new system was recently installed but with separate circuits for 9111, the system failure had no impact on his office’s work, especially at the 911 Center.
Gerace confirmed a few minutes later that the system was back in operation.
WNYNewsNow’s Multimedia journalist Justin Gould contributed to this report.