Election Day: Im going to lay out as many of the events of the day as I can because I think its a story that needs to be told. United Monroe team members met at 5:15am at our HQ to assemble our team of Poll Watchers who were to head to KJ for the opening of the polls there. Our Poll Watchers were a professional group of United Monroe supporters who wanted to ensure that the law was followed with regards to the election process at the KJ voting districts. There are two polling locations in KJ. One is at 55 Forest Rd which has 12 districts, the other is located at 7 Chevron Drive, which has 3 districts. There were a total of 7 machines. Upon arrival, we noticed that Councilman Harley Doles was outside the doors of the 55 Forest Rd polling location handing out campaign material which highlighted the Democratic line of candidates and included Yiddish language on the rest of the flyer. KJ residents walked up to Councilman Doles, picked up their instructions and entered the polling location. Our poll watchers immediately notified the Board of Election workers in the building since this is illegal and is called electioneering. There were two day laborers handing out the same flyers with the ballot printed on it to instruct the KJ voters how to vote. Our poll watchers were dropped off and took their posts. A few hours later, I drove back to KJ to check on the poll watchers. I didnt, in good conscience, want to leave our volunteers anywhere without seeing that they were being treated fairly. As I pulled up I saw Councilman Doles hanging over a chain link fence about 75 ft from the polling place. I entered the polling location which is a lavish banquet hall space. I immediately saw a few familiar faces: Langdon Chapman (Town Attorney), Councilman Dan Burke, Kate Troiano (Town Employee and close friends with the Doles) and two other women assigned to be there by Councilman Doles and his cronies. I wasnt in in the room for a minute when I was told to leave by the Commissioner of the Board of Elections. A moment later, a Sheriff tapped me on the shoulder and told me I had to go. I was legally allowed to be there, yet I was told to leave. Not wishing to argue with a Sheriff, I stepped outside the polling place to see Harley Doles, holding up a camera, filming me screaming YOU BROKE THE LAW! YOU BROKE THE LAW!!!! over and over again. If I didnt know who he was, I would have thought that he was a mentally ill, homeless man. I decided in that moment that I wasnt going to run to my car and hide, but instead walked directly towards the camera saying Are you going to scream at me from across the street or do you want to have a conversation, Councilman Doles? He then rambled on incoherently accusing me of setting up my fellow candidate Audra Schwartz and took off. It was a very rattling and unsettling exchange. To watch KJ citizen after KJ citizen walk up, grab their sample ballot and enter the polling place, completely trusting their leaders to dictate who they are to vote for, without thinking, was very depressing to watch. And then to see the very man theyve chosen, behaving so erratically and looking so unwell, was even more frightening. To my left was a group of KJ men watching my exchange with Doles. I looked at them and said I really hope you understand that this man is not good for any of us. I hope you know who youre voting for today. I told them he is a dangerous man who accuses United Monroe of hatred and that this is not true. I could tell that my audience was not interested and I walked back to my car. There, I found Ari Felberman, the Public Relations Director of KJ. He was engaged in a heated discussion with United Monroe justice candidate Audra Schwartz. I had never met Mr. Felberman. He introduced himself to me and immediately asked why we (United Monroe) are trying to block KJ. He told me he read our campaign material called The Truth and that we are against them. I told him that we are against the Town Board who makes decisions which ignore half of the community. He continued to repeat the rhetoric and I said, its election day, you will vote for whoever you think represents you. I have said since the beginning, if KJ is for equal, fair, transparent, accountable government, then my door is open. I returned to our HQ will a profound feeling of sadness for what I witnessed there. Poll watcher after poll watcher returned to HQ with the same story. The KJ women behind the tables were lovely and the only problems they had were with the other poll watchers there- Harleys friends- Kate Troiano, Langdon Chapman, Dan Burke and the two, highly charged, highly aggressive women working on behalf of Harley. Our watchers challenged very few KJ voters on their signatures. When they did, because they were in their right to do so, they were immediately descended upon by Harleys thugs who shouted, called our watchers antisemitic, accused our watchers of voter suppression and were clearly there to intimidate our poll watchers. This circus of a situation continued, despite our poll watchers efforts to report this behavior to the Board of Elections representatives present. False claims of voter intimidation were launched at our people, and one of Harleys poll watchers even went so far as to text a photo of our people to Mid Hudson Valley news to attempt to expose them and discredit United Monroe. We sent poll watchers to KJ for the simple reason that we know that there is a pattern of electioneering (distributing literature or campaigning within 100 feet of the polling place) and fraud (people voting for someone else). Our watchers were there, professionally and respectfully requesting that when a signature didnt match, that the voter fill out a simple form swearing that they are who they say they are. If filled out, they could then vote. The form would be sent to the Board of Elections where the voter would be verified. Simple. However, this simple act was made to seem like an attack on the citizens of KJ by the spin and propaganda put in place by Harley Doles friends. The KJ women working the tables were defending our poll watchers since our people had established a good relationship with them. It took the Board of Elections reps hours before finally asking two extremely aggressive poll watchers for Harley to leave. Town Attorney, Langdon Chapman, was behaving particularly aggressive as well and I question the capacity in which he was there. He was acting as a representative for Kj and not as a poll watcher. Its important to mention that there were no ballot shortages in KJ. On the other side of town..... By mid afternoon, many polling locations were short on ballots. Phone calls were placed to the Board of Elections. Non machine ballots were delivered in dribs and drabs, people were unable to read the non machine ballots due to the writing being so small. Some people were giving affidavit ballots (also non-machine), some people were given Spanish speaking ballots, some waited for up to 2 and a half hours to vote. Some people couldnt wait and left. At the end of the day, it appeared that Harley Doles and friends were about 1,200 votes ahead, which seemed ok since we knew we had a lot of paper, uncounted ballots out there. However, the next day, 18 or so hours later, 3 KJ districts finished reporting giving Doles and friends a much needed boost of 540 or so votes bringing their lead up to almost 1,700. Are there 1,700 uncounted ballots sitting at the Board of Elections for United Monroe? We dont know. But what we DO know is that we were set up to lose. The Board of elections sent out ballots to cover over 100% of KJs registered voter population. They sent out 55% for the rest of Monroe. Please know that we are every bit as frustrated as you are about the entire picture. Please know that we are doing everything in our power to get to the bottom of this. Please know that we will have answers for you soon. Please be patient. And please, if you have an election day story to share, if you left the polling place, if you had to fill out a Spanish speaking ballot (and youre not a Spanish speaker), please email me with your story at: EmilyConvers@yahoo.
Posted on: Sat, 09 Nov 2013 19:37:45 +0000
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