This article has been updated.

New Yorkers, be prepared to choose between the primary and general election—because the city cannot afford to put on both.

As the stalemate over picking a new executive director continues, there is not enough money to cover costs for holding New York City’s November general election after paying for primary operations in September, according to the current reading of the city budget by the Board of Elections.

The assessment of the Board of Elections shortfall—pegged at approximately $19 million less than what the agency’s staff says will be necessary to conduct its appointed tasks through the coming fiscal year—was announced Tuesday at the regular meeting of the commissioners at its headquarters in Lower Manhattan.

According to finance officer John Ward, the city budget passed last week leaves the Board $9 million short of the “personnel services,” or payroll budget, and an additional $10 million short of the OTPS, or “other than personnel services” budget used to pay for the new voting machines at long last being introduced this year to bring New York into compliance with the Help America Vote Act, as well as to bring those voting machines to the polling places.

Board of Elections staff say that the current budget allocates enough money for either one drop-off and pick-up of voting machines, presumably for the primary elections, and then not to be able to pay to bring the machines back out for the general, or to leave the pricey new voting machines sitting in polling places from September through November.

“The choice is right now, we can send the truckers out and once back, but the second time becomes a question,” the Board’s general counsel, Steven Richman, explained to the commissioners at Tuesday’s meeting.

The budget drama comes as the Board enters the fifth month of its deadlock over selecting a new executive director to replace Marcus Cederqvist, who resigned in February. Four Democratic commissioners along with the Staten Island Republican commissioner are backing deputy executive director George Gonzalez, while the remaining four Republican commissioners are backing J.C. Polanco, the Republican commissioner from the Bronx who serves as the Board’s secretary. The Staten Island Democratic Commissioner is currently undecided. (Polanco arose as the Republican choice after former Council Member Anthony Como abandoned his plans to seek the post to instead run for State Senate against Joe Addabbo.)

The negotiations over the executive director position have been happening entirely behind closed doors among county leaders and other backroom political players, but on Tuesday, the dispute between Gonzalez and Polanco was laid bare as the Board’s secretary took the deputy executive director to task for the lack of a contingency plan to deal with the budget situation.

“I thought today I was going to be able to go back to the Bronx and say this is our plan of attack,” Polanco said, addressing Gonzalez. “I’m not hearing that, and I’m very concerned.”

The Board of Elections has complained of shortfalls before, claiming through last fall that it lacked the money to pay for poll workers under the argument that the city did not provide money in the budget to pay for run-off elections in addition to the regularly scheduled primary and general elections. Extra election day operations are never funded in the budget, and as is standard practice, the city eventually funded the money, but did so several months after, forcing the Board to temporarily shift money allocated for rent and other operating expenses for the spring in its annual budget before being made whole with an additional $8 million provided to cover costs. 

Though the situation this year differs sharply—aside from a Brooklyn special Council election in March, there have not been any unexpected operations that would require extra funds, and the Board has had access to Help America Vote Act money for years to switch to the new machines—Gonzalez said he believed the same will happen this year to make up for the approximately $2.5 million necessary to do a second pick-up and drop-off of the voting machines. He added that he expects the Board to go begging for more money from the mayor and City Council in January, just as the city begins negotiating the FY 2012 budget—expected to be an even tougher battle than the one just concluded.

“The city makes us go through this every year with the budget,” Gonzalez said.

Referring to the general election that is currently being threatened, he added, “When you threaten them with canceling an event, the monies come through—so I’m not losing any sleep over that.”

Polanco indicated that he was not impressed by this response.

“We can’t sit here $20 million in the hole and hope,” he said.

Polanco was joined in his complaints by Fred Umane, the Manhattan Republican commissioner, and Michael Ryan, the Democratic commissioner from Staten Island.

“This money stuff is getting frustrating,” Ryan said. “We shouldn’t be asking these questions. The staff should come with information and answers and a plan, especially this year when the budget is such a problem and we’ve got elections coming.”

And Marc La Vorgna, a spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, indicated that the administration—on record for years as having major problems with the Board of Elections—made clear that the city was not sympathetic to its purported plight.

“Sounds an awful lot like when they said they had no money to pay poll workers at the end of last year and we noted the funding was in place,” La Vorgna said. “Then suddenly, when it came time to pay the workers, they found the money to do so. This is no different, the funding is in place for the Board to carry out its responsibilities and it should do so.”

And the executive director search officially continues: at the end of the meeting on Tuesday, Board president Julie Dent asked her formal question to Gonzalez, “Did you receive any additional résumés for the position of executive director?”

“No additional résumés,” Gonzalez said, as he and the rest of the Board decamped to private quarters for a meeting of the Board’s executive committee.

Gonzalez told the Board that he would have a plan to deal with the budget situation ready by July 16.'