Parents of students at Hawthorne Elementary School say they are on heightened alert after learning that ex-felons and convicted sex offenders on parole could be voting at the school on primary day.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a controversial executive order back in April that gave back the right to vote to 24,000 parolees.

For sex offenders, the rules around voting are stricter. They must have written permission from officers and school administrators before entering school grounds, and they are only allowed to vote between the hours of 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Parents at Hawthorne Elementary says this provides little comfort because they have an open house for parents and students at the school that coincides with election night.

Republican state Sen. Terrence Murphy, who is up for re-election in November, says there are too many potentially devastating unintended consequences from the governor's executive order.

“If we all talked about it and it came to the Legislature and we had a debate, it could've been done the right way. This tomorrow is not right,’ he says.

Police in Mount Pleasant say they will have officers stationed at all schools that serve as polling stations all day on Thursday.