The Erie County Board of Elections notified the County Legislature during budget hearings last week its allocation for next year was $2 million less than it projects it needs.

"Simply put, there was a breakdown in communication between our office and the budget office where the Board of Elections did not submit on time the budget for next year," Republican Commissioner Ralph Mohr said.

The BOE said the Budget Office — without a request — moved forward with last year's numbers which didn't take into account 2020 is a presidential election year, with a presidential primary and potentially a separate Congressional special election.

"We had worked on the figures of the budget," Mohr said. "It came at a time when we were initiating the early voting. We were also training inspectors on the use of early voting and the individuals who would normally be assuring that the budget would be submitted to the budget office were out doing other tasks."

Commissioners said they didn't realize there was an issue until they received their budget books because the budget office never notified them the request was late. The administration deferred to the BOE Tuesday, noting all other departments made their submissions on time.

"I didn't get a call either but clearly the buck stops with us," Democratic Commissioner Jeremy Zellner said. "We know when the budget needs to be submitted and it’s our job to submit it over there."

The good news, they said, is the budget is not final and the county is projecting a $7 million surplus. However, Legislature Minority Leader Joe Lorigo said he's uncomfortable with utilizing a surplus to fill a shortfall, especially when the county has had several unexpected costs this year due to new state laws.

"I can't speak for the administration," Lorigo said. "I can't speak for the Board of Elections but I can give them my opinion on them and when it comes to the Board of Elections budget and a $2 million shortfall for 2020, both of them dropped the ball and they should be answering to taxpayers about how they're going to solve it."

Commissioners said they will work with the county Legislature but balked at the idea there was mismanagement in the office.

"It wasn't like we told the budget office, ‘we don't want to play with you’ or ‘we’re not going to do this,’" Mohr said. “This was a good faith effort.”

Zellner said he didn't think "the ball was dropped." Lorigo said there may be other parts of the budget where they can find the money but it will require cooperation from the administration and both conferences in the Legislature.