Friday, October 2, 2026
Hempstead Union Free School District voters returned to the polls Monday to decide a Board of Education trustee seat that had been the subject of an unprecedented revote after the state Education Department annulled the results of the May 19 election.
Gwendolyn Jackson, won the state-ordered revote, securing a three year term on the Hempstead Board of Education after finishing second in the initial election.
Jackson received 255 votes, defeating Eugenia Girtman, who received 161; incumbent Trustee Victor Pratt, who received 49; and Caprice Rines, who received 17, according to results released by the district. The ballot count was also livestreamed on the district’s website.
Pratt had won the May 19 election with 288 votes, defeating challengers Gwendolyn Jackson, Eugenia Girtman and Caprice Rines.
The revote was ordered by state Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa after the district petitioned her to invalidate the trustee election. Rosa directed the district to hold a new election within 60 days. The district had asked that only the trustee race be invalidated, leaving the voter-approved school budget and capital reserve proposition in place.
The district’s 51-page petition, filed June 17, alleged multiple problems involving election materials, absentee ballots and election procedures. District officials argued that the irregularities undermined the integrity of the trustee election and made it impossible to determine whether the results accurately reflected the will of voters.
The Nassau County District Attorney’s Office also investigated the handling of election materials. According to the district’s petition, ballots were discarded in a garbage bag that was later recovered from a dumpster outside the district’s administrative building.
School officials said they could not determine exactly how many cast ballots had been destroyed because the remnants had been collected in a large bag. The discarded materials also included envelopes that could have been used to determine how many absentee ballot applications had been mailed.
The state’s decision voided that result and gave voters another opportunity to choose the trustee.
The Board of Education had taken steps in the weeks before the revote to put new district election leadership in place. At a special meeting on June 25, the board appointed Alexander Hernandez as acting district clerk. The resolution passed 3-2, with Joylette Williams, LaMont Johnson and Jeferry Spencer voting in favor and Pratt and Trustee Elise Nicholson voting against.
At the July 6 reorganization and regular meetings, the board conducted its annual reorganization and established its leadership and administrative structure for the new school year. The district’s records show that the July meetings took place as the district moved toward the state-ordered revote.
The district subsequently held a regular Board of Education meeting on July 22, with Hernandez serving as acting district clerk.
The revote represented the next step in resolving an election that had been thrown into question by the handling of ballots and other election materials. The Nassau County district attorney’s investigation into the allegations remained separate from the State Education Department’s decision to annul the May election.
