As most of you know by now, 6 people, including myself, won the law suit against the Board of Elections. We were reinstated as election inspectors in Kiryas Joel for yesterdays election. Heres my account of what happened: I sat at District 24 at the Keren Plaza Banquet Hall on Forest Rd. with 4 other women who live in Kiryas Joel. I sat on the end of the table since this was my first time as an inspector and these 4 women had done this job for years. At first, the women werent sure why I was there but they quickly accepted my presence and were gracious enough to only speak English. One woman who I sat with has 15 children, and hundreds of grandchildren and great grandchildren. Almost every person who came to the table, she knew. She knew their last name for sure as evidenced by how she would quickly flip to their signature page in the signature book, and they were all related to her in some way. This is the mother of the girl whos marrying my grandson. Or, This is my niece on my husbands side. She was joyfully chatting with the women who walked up to our district. Many of them just came by to see their aunts or mothers or grandmothers as the case may be. It was a social day for the women of KJ. The woman I mentioned with 15 children assured me that there was NO fraud in KJ. None whatsoever. This woman is aligned with the main KJ government. I understand that there is a good possibility that she isnt aware that fraud has been an unfortunate part of voting in Kiryas Joel in the past- but, she was certainly right in the case of this election. I saw absolutely no fraud occurring at District 24. All signatures matched and the 2 or 3 that didnt were hurried businessmen who no longer take the time to write their names neatly. The women were careful to cover all signatures as people signed their name. Due to my subtle gestures, they also started taking the time to look at the signature afterwards and I know this was done for my benefit. I compared each signature with my own eyes. The argument could be made that the presence of 4 Department of Justice representatives as well as the recent Times Herald Record article by Chris McKenna had something to do with how smoothly things went at the polls on November 4th. The argument could also be made that yesterdays election in Kiryas Joel was squeaky clean because there were no get out the vote sheets at this election. At last years election, and most previous elections, there has been a system where an election inspector would keep track of every voter who voted. The sheets containing the list of those who voted would be picked up by a KJ volunteer who would then presumably take them to where the bar codes next to each name could be scanned into a computer. A list of all of those who did NOT yet vote would be printed out. Thats how, at the end of the day, people can show up in someone elses place. Say, for example, the Kiryas Joel Power Elite (KJPE) see a name on the list of non-voters who they KNOW is a guy who got married and now lives in Brooklyn. Well, they can send another guy to vote in his place in KJ. I have no doubt that the majority of KJ voters would not do this. However, the KJ government, as weve seen in how they operate, will stop at nothing to gain power. And, this bar code system of getting out the vote was not employed this year for some reason. Perhaps because the KJ government was aware that the Alliance, or dissident groups would be voting for Dennis McWatters and the risk of attempting this would be too great. Weve already been told by Alliance members the horror stories of elections past in KJ. Alliance members shared that they showed up at the polls in the past to learn that they already voted, meaning, someone was already sent in their place. Has fraud occurred in KJ in the past? I have no doubt. How widespread was it last year? Hard to say since our poll watchers were so badly treated by County Attorney, Chapman and company and were prevented from overseeing the election clearly. Was there fraud this year? If there was, I didnt see any. Many of you have heard the recording of my conversation with Sue Bahren where she clearly explains that we were disallowed from being election inspectors in KJ due to cultural reasons. It was this conversation along with a conversation I had with the other BOE Commissioner, David Green (yes, there are two), along with their rescinding our posts as inspectors which led to the law suit which we won. In KJ yesterday, at around 7:00pm, I was sitting at my district which was quiet at that time. Sue Bahren stormed up to me with a Sheriff Dept officer by her side and a smart phone pointed at me (clearly recording our conversation). She announced in a very loud voice Emily, as your employer I need to ask you some questions. I said sure. She then asked, in an aggressive tone Have you been posting to Facebook while youve been working here today? To which I answered no. There were many posts yesterday on our FB page in order to get out the vote. None of them were posted by me. There are seven other administrators of this page besides myself. Sue Bahren didnt stop with the one question. She kept going. You DIDNT post that KJ citizens are FLOODING the POLLS??? No, I didnt, Sue. She continued, and at this point there was a hush around me, all of the KJ women were watching, wide eyed as I was publicly interrogated while a Sheriff was scribbling on his notepad next to Sue. Have you been texting people outside of this polling location telling them what the turnout is like here? Me: No Sue, I havent. I then told her You know, there are United Monroe people all over the place here- there are poll watchers, people outside handing out flyers, Im not the only person who sees how many people are coming in and out today. She stared me down, paused, said OK. OK, very curtly and stormed off. My face grew hot and tears came to my eyes. It was an embarrassing moment, and that was the point. Sue was out for revenge. Instead of her feeling the need to make right what she had done, she wanted a reason to throw me out of there. I think she wanted revenge. Well, she got it. Because I had to go to the restroom after this exchange to pull myself together. KJ leader/Administrator, Gedalye Szegedin was present at the polls several times throughout the day. I saw him standing around and speaking with people in early afternoon. Mike Egan and John Allegro saw and had an unpleasant exchange with Szegedin in the evening. We must question, why was he there? What authority did he have to be there? Was he poll watching? If so, he wasnt wearing the required brightly colored sticker and he wasnt standing at a district table. John Allegro and Mike Egans conversation with Szegedin, as they were relayed to me, were a lot like a conversations with the Town Board. Accusations of hate, propaganda, repetitive rhetoric. Accusations and more accusations. Szegedin said See, theres no fraud here! Are you going to admit theres no fraud in KJ? Its almost as though he purposefully called off the fraud just so he could hang around the polls and say that. Its hard not to come to that conclusion. There is a system at the polls in KJ where all of the KJ women get fed throughout the day. They were kind enough to serve me meals as well. I was treated very cordially by the women at my district as well as those around me. At one point, the mother of 15 and Grandmother to hundreds was sharing with me her belief that these fraud accusations are completely false. I knew I wasnt going to convince her otherwise, nor did I think it would be appropriate to try. So, I gently shared with her that the Alliance have had great difficulties in the past with elections. She scoffed and said, the Alliance have created many problems over the years. The Alliance in KJ caused more problems yesterday- they caused problems for the leaders of KJ and the Town Board of Monroe by helping us elect Dennis McWatters. 1,843 KJ Alliance voters voted for Dennis McWatters. And were grateful. And to the 6,000 or so Monroe voters outside of KJ who turned up for Dennis- thank you. Emily Convers
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 14:06:54 +0000
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