VoterComplaintList2.16.16pdf

transcript

8/20/2019 VoterComplaintList2.16.16pdf

1/231

Describe your experience. Please be specific.

My voting experience was uneventful. I lookedup my polling location because I know it canchange. I went to my designated location (&Hoffman Ave) at approximately 4p.m. and castmy ballot.


2/231

I walked into eagle point elementary to vote andwas greeted by a line out the door of the library.When I finally got to give my name the personin front of me and behind me were told theywere in the wrong spot and had to go to materChristi after the website indicated that was theirpolling place. the whole process was chaoswith staff not quite sure how to remedy the

issues. The machine to accept votes wasbroken and my vote was placed into a boxinstead. VOTER FRAUD


3/231

My husband and I were redirected to adifferent polling place----we got to the NEW

polling destination only to be told there were no

more ballots and they only had a few paperballots. We stood in line forever and were thelast people to be able to use a paper ballot, thatwas simply placed on an open table.....NOBALLOT BOX. We felt as tthough we werevoting for a King or Queen at a prom!! Thepeople in the long lines behind us hadNOTHING to vote with. They were told toeither wait or come back later!!

RIDICULOUS!!!!! We are taxpayers and wanta REVOTE immediately.......this needs to bechallenged!!!!


4/231

I voted at the Elementary School on NewScotland Ave. The line was really long and atleast 2 people in front of me walked outbecause they came to the wrong place to vote -they used to be assigned to this school and

were not notified about the change. I am notsure if they had time to go to a different place.Overall, it was really poorly organized.


5/231

I voted at Albany School of Humanities around6:30 PM. The election workers said they wereout of ballots and not sure if more were coming.There were about 25 people waiting for ballots

to show up.

Since I wasn't in any of their books they allowedme to fallout a paper ballot and put it in anenvelope that I had to sign the affidavit on thefront of it. They seemed horribly disorganizedand I have no confidence that my vote wasactually counted as the worker put it in acardboard box on the floor.

I witnessed multiple people (I'd estimate about15 people) leave being frustrated that theycouldn't vote.

I had a ballot and went to the machine to castmy vote, worker got up out of her seat, took myballot put in middle slot and me machine wasn'tworking.


6/231

Speaking as a concerned lifetime AlbanyResident and AHS Class of '94, RPI Class of'97 - the voting yesterday for the AHS Schoolvote was terrible and a disgrace. Speaking as aformer Albany Board of Elections electioninspector who used to be in charge of a majorvoting location (ASH with 2 machines andseveral districts; for several years) myself andanother former inspector witnessed improper

and even illegal (by normal election standards)procedures at 3 polling places.

Things we witnessed/experienced:Everything from leaving the emergency ballotslot open and people using it even though themachine was working fine (we told a poll workerand he said "oops"), using notebook paper forpeople to handwrite ballots and put them in a

folder (not the machine nor emergency ballot

box), photocopied ballots, recording andshouting out of peoples' names and addresses,etc.

The 3 sites we visited (a couple of us voting)were Parks & Rec, Montessori, and Pine HillsElementary. There is NO WAY this vote shouldbe considered legal nor complete.

I don't know who/how to proceed with filing alawsuit but it should (and probably will) happen -this is disenfranchisement on a large scale!


7/231

Voted at School 19 on New Scotland Avenue ataround 2:30 pm... there were two personshandling the signatures... no observer or pollwatcher. Machine worked fine. Returned later

(around 4pm) accompanying my wife... there

was a line out the door. The machine(scanner) failed. I observed several peoplebecome exasperated and leave. While wewaited a gentleman wheeled in a replacementmachine. this took a while, and many personswaited, but several left. I chose to take a seatin the classroom, as I had already voted. Stillno poll watcher... just the two signaturepersons. My daughter voted quite a bit later

and told me in a phone conversation that shehad to manually submit her ballot as thescanner was not working!


8/231

Point school, however this time voting siteswere changed and we were designated to voteat Mater Christi. This was confusing to votersas people arrived at Mater Christi after havinggone to their usual locations and then had tofigure out where to go to vote. We arrivedapproximately at 5:00 and voters who werestanding in line tried to direct voters to eitherthe A through K line or the L through Z line.There appeared to be no official person to

avoid confusion as the lines were going out thedoor and even into the kitchen. The lines didnot move and eventually the word trickled to thevoters in line that they had run out of ballots.Some of the voters left. After 15 minutes or so,the word then trickled back that someone wasgetting paper ballots to use. Finally we reachedthe desk to sign in and were given a paperballot to complete. Some people didn't know

where to put them after completing them - the

voting machines could not accommodate these"makeshift" paper ballots. We then figured outthat we should hand them to the person at thedesk who was signing voters in. In order to doso, a voter had to interrupt the signing inprocess and hand the ballot to the person at thedesk. (There were only two people signing inall of the voters.) when we handed in the ballotto the desk person, she then shoved it in a file

folder that was not sealed. There did notappear to be any security at the voting site toensure that all ballots were to be kept secret

I have several people interested in being part ofthe lawsuit. Please contact me. I did not voteand am not eligible to vote so don't count this inthe total.


9/231

My husband and I went to vote Tuesday

evening at the Hoffman Avenue polling place.there was already a line of people and theworkers were trying to explain that there was nomore ballots available and they were trying toget more. they had no idea how long thatwould take and suggested maybe ASH schoolon Whitehall Rd had some. A man that waswaiting to vote offered to go see if they hadsome and would call the worker's cell phone to

let him know if they did. He said he would bring

them back to Hoffman Ave. the parking lot wasfull of people leaving and new people arriving.it was confusion to say the least. we returnedabout 8pm hoping that there were ballotsavailable and there now was so we were able tovote.I have to say it was a pretty unprepared event.I think there were only a couple pencils, peoplewere putting their ballots in the manila

envelopes, no one was giving directions. I thinkthe whole thing rattled the poor workers. can'tblame them, it did me too.

I voted on my lunch break. I had no lines and aproper ballot.

Denied ballot


10/231

Voted around 7PM. No electron ballots. Was

given a 8 1/2"x 11" paper "x marks the spot"

ballot. Folded it over in half and the so calledvoting inspector put it in a manila envelope thatwas quite full. Seemed to be, say 50 or sohand ballots in there. My wife stuck hers in thevote counter computer, boy did that make abunch of sounds before it spit it back out. A bitfunny, lots of tension in that room. Im surprisedthey didnt make us dip our fingers in the purpledye.

I would like to see a computer tally of votes andhand vote tally on a per site basis.


11/231

Voted around 7PM. No electron ballots. Was

given a 8 1/2"x 11" paper "x marks the spot"

ballot. Folded it over in half and the so calledvoting inspector put it in a manila envelope thatwas quite full. Seemed to be, say 50 or sohand ballots in there. My wife stuck hers in thevote counter computer, boy did that make abunch of sounds before it spit it back out. A bitfunny, lots of tension in that room. Im surprisedthey didnt make us dip our fingers in the purpledye.

I would like to see a computer tally of votes andhand vote tally on a per site basis.


12/231

The mailing I received stated that I should voteat my regular polling station. I showed up at myregular voting stain that I voted in the Novelection. The station was closed. I wasn't awarethat voting locations of school board run voteswere at different locations. I took I quess thatthe location was different and figure out to vote.I had to wait in a long line. The poling stationonly had 3 pens was unstaffed. The whole vote

process is shady. This proposal trying to bepushed thru. I feel that the school board istrying to put one over on the people of Albany.


13/231

We voted at the Mater Christi school, which isour normal polling station for the 14th ward. Ispoke to several persons who stated they havelived in the city for over 25 years and had never

voted at that polling station. Earlier, the sitehad run out of ballots. The registration wasorganized by last name, not ward as is usual.The line after registering, wrapped around theperimeter of the room waiting for the ONEscanning machine present. Many folks walkedup, saw the line and left. I can't help butbelieve that this was intentionaldisenfranchisement - overcrowding, not enough

equipment and ballots, delays in opening times,

and combining wards into polling sites furtheradded to the confusion. It would be interestingto know the polling locations of the variousinitial 'no' vote wards back in November, andhow those polling places had changed leadingup to February 9th's vote - especially incomparison with the Center Square, Arbor Hill,South end, and the other 'yes' voting wardsfrom the November cycle. I for one found the

process as undemocratic as any I'veexperienced in my voting lifetime, and I'mapproaching 50. Terrible.


14/231

i'm not a voter in albany, and after jearing whathappened yesterday am glad i'm not. whatever

the outcome, the people that had anything to dowith it should be brought on the carpet. itmakes me feel like our town leaders areangels.


15/231

While I was able to cast my ballot, I am relayingthe experiences of two people next to me in linebetween 5 and 6PM at Mater Christi. Next tome was a senior citizen who explained this wastheir third visit to the polling site, after havingbeen turned away twice earlier in the day as aresult of too few ballots. Also next to me was avoter who said she was directed to Mater

Christi via the Board's location finder, only to

learn upon registering that her name was not inthe book. I witnessed her request anemergency or affidavit ballot, and she wasdenied by an official who appeared to be incharge of the location. She told them she had aright to that kind of ballot, and the responsewas along the lines of: "I understand yourconcerns, but we are very busy and there isnothing we can do." She then left. While I am

afraid that I do not have their names, I hopethey share their own stories as the voterdisenfranchisement was shameful.

Used a paper ballot- 7:30 a.m., with closeddoor at Pine Hills Elementary


16/231

BIG BIG BIG issue- on Thurs. 2/4 included inmy daughters' (3) report cards mailed fromHackett Middle School and Albany High wasincluded a 'VOTE YES' brochure. Yeah, on mytaxpayer paper, in my taxpayer envelope, withmy taxpayer stamp. No indication it wasprovided by a shadow group. Can forward copyof envelope and brochure. Contacted Bd. ofElections, enforcement division. Also sent copy

to Counsel's of NYSED. This 'VOTE YES'brochure sent to thousands of parents in district-illegally. Help Help!


17/231

Was never notified where to vote, so I went tomy usual voting place at the TOAST school, thedoor was locked so I came home called theSchool Board and was told I have to go to the

grade school off Deleware Ave. when therewas told I should go to Hackett Midfle School,Frustrated I went home and didn't vote.


18/231

normal voting location (which is what wasadvertised to do) which is Albany School ofHumanities on Whitehall Road. There wereapproximately 50 people or more already inline. They had no signs to inform people thatthere were actually two lines but due to all thepeople you couldn't see that. So we eventuallywere told by other voters that A-K was over onthe other side and the long line that everyonewas standing it was actually the L-Z. There

was one person recording the ballot numberand names on the lined paper. This held theline up considerably. As we were approachingthe front of the line I had noticed that the manhanding out the actual ballot forms had veryfew forms. I kept looking to see if there wasanother pile next to him but couldn't see any. After about 45 minutes we reached the front ofthe line and we were told that we were in the

wrong voting place (even though that is the

location at which we voted in November) and 2.they had just run out of ballots. A woman yelledto the crowd that they were out of ballots. Theyhad already been waiting 45 minutes for ballotsand that they had no idea when they werecoming. She did apologize but that they hadNO control of it. There was nothing they coulddo but wait for someone to come. We were notgiven the option to vote using an absentee

ballot or a piece of paper or anything. Therewere several people in line that had small kids.While we were in line I witnessed at least 50


19/231

was no s as to where to enter the building. Iwalked to the loading dock and was greeted bya large dumster of garbage on wheels. Thedoor would not open and I could see a group ofpeople sitting at a table behind one of the hightables to make out the ballot. They could notsee the door. I went to the main entrance andbuzzed myself in and some woman and I toldher I wanted to vote. She said I had to go to thedock entrance. I told her that the door was

locked and no at opened the door. Sheescorted me to the cafeteria and there werearound three people sitting at the table and youcould see they had could not see the dockdoor. The woman who escorted me into thecafeteria immediately saw the problem andinitiated changing the location of the table. Oneof the woman who was at the table said that itwas a rough morning and I unfortunately was

upset and said that she was being paid. I

called a number of numbers on the schooldistrict and got voice mail. I did get a MR.Weisman and explained the situation and hesaid what did I want him to do and told him thatthey needed to have a sign to the poling doorand have the polling people open the door. Iwas not satisfied and called another and got theSupr. office and she said they already got acall. She then said that she voted there and had

no problem and I said maybe it was because ofher status. I explained the situation again and Ithink she got the message. Again there were


20/231

My husband and I voted at Pine HillsElementary School mid-afternoon. Themachine was not working - supposedly jammed- and so we had to insert our ballots into a slotbelow the actual voting machine.I did not like this at all and feel that there shouldbe a re-vote, perhaps at primary time. It isridiculous - with all the publicity and hype to get

out and vote - that they did not have enoughballots, machines were jammed, people werenot allowed in at the correct time, etc.


21/231

It was an extremely cramped venue. Parking

was tough to find. Once in the building, the linewas out the door, and people were walking outsaying that they weren't going to wait on thisline. No one was directing newcomers to thetables where they could find their last names.No one was guiding the line to wait for voting,either. The sign posted said the capacity was48 - there were probably around 200 standingaround the room. No one knew where the end

of the line was, and people were getting very

frustrated. Worst of all, there was ONE votingmachine. One. Voting. Machine. One womanwas mistakenly unable to vote and was told tofill out a special certified form, but they were allout, so she wasn't able to vote. Others had tofill out ballots and they just sat in a pile on thedesk. The whole process was complete chaos.I was also wondering why I had to vote at MaterChristi when I live so close to other schools. I

don't vote there for other elections, why have todrive over there for this? Very disappointing inso many ways.


22/231

Hi! I'd like to know who runs this site. I thinkpeople would feel more comfortable sharingtheir experiences if they knew who was behindthis information collection. Thank you.

Cody HolyokeWRGB-TV


23/231

I almost put my ballot in the wrong place. Theslot for emergency ballots was open. Luckilymy daughter-in-law pointed this out to mebefore I slipped it in. She mentioned to one ofthe election people that the slot was open andhe said "oops". My daughter-in-law worked theregular elections for several years, so sheknows how they should be run. One of theelection people also mentioned that they had

run out of ballots earlier in the day. I am veryconcerned about the legality and legitimacy ofthis election.


24/231

I was in line at Mater Christi for 45 minutes.The line was not moving and there was noannouncement until word started filtering downthe line that there were no ballots. They saidsome were "on the way". Next thing we knewwas they said we were going to vote on paperballots. I stayed in line (many left) and got mypaper ballot. I was told to mark yes or no and

then return the ballot to the registration table.

Upon going back to the table with my piece ofpaper, the poll worker (?) took the paper andslid it under her book. I said that that locationwas not secure among the piles of otherpapers. There was absolutely no receptacle forthese pieces of paper. As I left I wasinterviewed (and on TV, though I did not see it)and upon hearing my story many, many peoplegot off the line and walked out. To say this

process had "irregularities" would be a grossunderstatement. I am willing to talk for therecord. This was a travesty.


25/231

I waited some 10-20 minutes for ballots toarrive at ASH. When I was able to vote, theballots were not scannable, and instead had theballot language on a piece of paper, with anarea where I could check yes or no. I was thenasked to place the ballot in an envelope, and

into a slot beneath the scanning machine. Thisdid not seem to be a secure means of votestore, and was ripe for tampering.


26/231

Arrive at ASH polling place to find long linesbecause we had to register and vote in thelobby instead of the gym as normal. Waited 45

minutes to find out we were at the wrong polling

place and they were out of ballots. We weretold they were bring more ballots and were notgiven any option to vote. While at AsH wewitnessed many people turn and walk out andprobably did not return because there were noballots and no alternatives offered. My wife andI had a committment that evening so we leftand we were not able to vote. I feel my right tovote was violated as many at ASH did. Isn't this

supposed to be a democracy. This electionshould be thrown out and another voting dateset.


27/231

My wife and I voted at mater Christi schoolaround 5pm. While in line, they ran out of thecomputer readable ballots. They said that"more would be delivered but did not knowwhen". We could either wait for them, or comeback later, or, file a paper ballot. We filed paper

ballots which were placed in a Manila folder atthe desk of the volunteers working the election.They were not secured in any way.


28/231

I was able to vote because I went in themorning, but I support you totally. And aretirement "bonus" was paid to a former

employee to "manage" this! At the very leastshe should refund the money and be sued forthe cost of a new vote that must occur.


29/231

I didn't have any problems voting at EaglePoint. It was a small corner in the library,

voting has always been held in the gym.The staff was efficient and I was in and out inless than 10 minutes.I was there at 12:30.

P.Serafino


30/231

When I voted yesterday, I signed the large bookcontaining registered voters' names. As well,however, before they gave me my ballot, theelection workers wrote my name in a spiralnotebook and wrote next to it a number thatthey read off the ballot. This means that anyonewho has access to both the ballots and thespiral notebook can match the ballots to voters'

names and determine who voted "yes" and whovoted "no" in this election. This violates voters'rights to secret ballots. (2-10-2016)


31/231

my daughter was told she could not not herballot in the machine by the wall , the lady at thetable had some one remove it and put it in theother machine , i did not feel this was a honestexperience i think they need to hold anothervote OVER ESSN BY AN INDEPENDENT

FIRM , this vote in all our school seems to befixed , i am not happy to vote in a crookedelection


32/231

No signs or directions at Eagle PointElementary on where to vote or where to enterthe building. I was locked out of one door and

someone coming by instructed me to go thefront of the building. Very confusing andfrustrating.


33/231

We voted at the Monte Christi School off ofNew Scotland Avenue. We waited for almost 40

Minutes to vote. The people who were workingfor the school board had no idea what theywere doing. I kept seeing voter leaving becauseof time restraints 4 people working and nonewho knew what they were doing. One votingmachine. The line was out the door this was ator about 4 P.M. Also there was electioneeringgoing on from the labors union 190.

They had a truck with a lighted bill board driving

around the school while children were beingdismissed and they were less than 100 feetfrom the polling place. I must have seen 40people leave that were unable to vote. People

couldn’t find the polling place either several

people stated they drove around for an hourtrying to fine the school. I never seen anythinglike this before and for that reason my vote

wasn’t counted. I will support legal action and

would being willing to contribute to the cost offiling legal action against the City of AlbanySchool board.


34/231

Woman working table was on the phoneordering "Moroccan chicken". She put phonedown on table almost had me sign in wrongspot. I corrected her. Gentleman eating asandwich. Unclear where the scanner was.Very unorganized and poorly set up.

We arrived around 6:20 pm to vote. There wereseveral people waiting to vote. They handed outthe last ballot- they had only had 150 to beginwith! We voted with a paper ballot.


35/231

normally the voting location is in the gym wherethere is plenty of space between theregistration tables and the booths to place yourvote and not in the library of the school wherethere was clearly not adequate space to do so .there's usually more space/privacy between thebooths were we vote and multiple machines for

scanning ballots when completed. it felt

cramped and not private. it appeared that twomachines were available to scan in your ballotbut i was told i was using the wrong one, eventhough no clear directives were given to me atthe time my ballot was handed to me. I had anuneasy feeling the entire time because its notthe same atmosphere or proper preparation forthe voters as there usually is. i arrived between11 and 12 to place my vote, at which time i feel

they should have a better plan to make thisprocess easier and difficult and frustrating forthe voter.

I voted at Eagle Point in the afternoon andeverything was fine. The clerks were helpful.Signs made it easy to find the voting location


36/231

arrived at ASH at 7:26Am but could not votedue to missing voter "books"

I assumed that we would be doing electronicvoting at school 19.. I know it isn't referred to asthat anymore... I arrived at 4:00 pm and therewas a line getting into the music room where

the voting machines were located...the pollworkers seemed very slow and not veryknowledgeable... I witnessed one of the voter'sattempting to use the electronic section of thevoting machine and neither of the poll workerssaid that she had to just slip the ballot into aslot under the machine... I mentioned that wealways use the electronic section for voting not

knowing that we were using emergency ballotsand the poll workers made no mention of thesame... I then mentioned to others in line that

we slip the ballot into the slot and don't use theelectronic section... the ballot was not secret!!I used one of the desks for completing theballot and am certain that folks in line could seethe way I voted. Regardless I submitted myballot and shook my head at the process.


37/231

As a Committeeman for the 12th ward 8thdistrict I had at least 2 phone calls that around7:30 am The voters were told that they don't

have the ballots .. they were locked up in themain office .. I will not reveal their names ,until I receive their permission .

There were no ballots when I went there at 6pmto vote. Was told it would be at least 20minutes until more arrived.


38/231

My wife and I voted at Eagle Point Elementary

School. The copier didn'twork properly to read our paper ballots. We areages 72 and 73 andattempted to vote at 9:30 AM.


39/231

I have lived at the same address for approx 19and voted in just about all of the Elections.Voted in Nov for the High School with noproblems. Yesterday was disgraceful. Not onlydid they not have enough poll workers, they hadone machine. Waited in line for approx 30minutes to be told that they did not have myname on file. How is that possible? Womantold me she would give me absentee ballot and

then couldn't find one. Ten minutes later came

back with one, told me fill it out , proceeded toput it under a pile of papers and that was that. Iwould be shocked if that didn't wind up in thetrash. Something doesn't smell right to me. Forthe School board president to say that hedoesn't know what the gripe is about speaksvolumes. Is it any surprise that the graduationrate at AHS is so low. Great example to set forstudents with an attitude like that. If someone

doesn't follow thru on this would be equallydisgraceful. Would have no gripe if it was a fairfight !


40/231

Does anyone realize that those who were notable to vote had their constitutional rightsviolated. They should be made whole by

allowing them to vote now by absentee ballotOR to vote at a polling station set up by the citySO EVERYONE'S VOICE CAN BE HEARD!


41/231

I received no information regarding the vote onFeb. 9th. If it was not for my family and friends,I would not have remembered to vote. If it wasnot for my sister I would not have known whereto vote, Thank God she told me by researchingit online.I've lived in Albany all my life but am trulydisgusted with the School Board. This is notfirst time the either the current or past school

boards have mislead the citizens of Albany.

The Myers School when built, went over 50million dollars than projected. The school boardhas a terrible reputation of misrepresenting thetruth to the tax payers of Albany. Further morethey take advantage of the older population bydoing so as they are the tax payers!!!!!!!! Nowonder no one wants to move to the city asSCHOOL TAXES are too high. When membersfrom this board come up for election, I'll be sure

to vote them out!!!!I will back Mr. Connors in any legal suitapplicable, should he be able to file.


42/231

my vote, I challenged the poller declaring thatmy vote was not confidential.

The process to vote went like this:Voter signs name in the official bookletThe poller then records my name inchronological order in a correspondingcomposition notebook.Everyone's name is now assigned to a number.

I submit my ballot into the machine.The number that was assigned to my namecomes up on the screen indicating that publicvote #......... was accepted.

I immediately turned to the poller and said,"Damn, you know my vote?" she said "what doyou mean"..I explain to her exaclty as statedabove and she shrugs her shoulders indicating

she knew what I meant but couldn't attest "Yay"

or "nay".

The way I see it is the machine recorded publicvote #...and for the purpose of this description,lets just say it was vote # 1000...IF the districtor school board wants to know who voter #1000 is then simply, look at the name next to#1000 is in the corresponding composition notebook.

I do not feel the democratic process wasprotected. Nor do I recall a corresponding


43/231

Once I found my polling station I had no issues,but if I didn't watch the news, I would not haveknown about the vote. There was no mailer orannouncement from the school board that a

vote was happening. Not getting any kind ofofficial notice almost prevent normal voting forme.


44/231

pm and immediately was approached byresidents saying they ran out of ballots andwere leaving. I walked in and to my surprisethey had only 2 tables set for 2 entire Wardstotally ludicrous and 1 polling machine. Reallyfor an issue as big as this and 2 of the largestvoting wards in the city I was there for an hour.Come on they wanted people to walk away.You have to be kidding me.The election peoplewere courteous but were not well informed. I

encountered numerous people who left anddidnt know if they would return. And to top it offthe paper ballots were not properly securedeither, folded in half and placed in a folder reallythis 2016.Unbelievable an issue as big as thisand they screwed it up . I have voted for 42years and this takes the cake and they call thisa democracy. So I told my significant other notto bother voting after work that I would take her

later, another inconvience. So again we went

back at 830ish and the line was out the doorand still only one machine really What are thecombined number of voters in both wards? Andto top it off no one new where to vote and theprofessionals could not direct them correctly.One guy came in and said he lived on VanSchoick and i said NSES and they said ASH sowho knows. Bill Hogan and the rest of the gangshould be held accountable. Ms Savage was at

the poll and I asked who admin this electionand she said the district and the board had tosign off and said to her an issue as big as this


45/231

A separate list of voters' names and addresseswas being hand-written, causing some delay inreceiving the paper ballot. The pathway forhandicapped voting between desks in theschool library was too narrow for wheelchair or

walker access. The vote tallying machine in thehandicapped area had to be reset because ofan incomplete processing.


46/231

I did not have a problem, there were adequate

poll workers and forms and machines when Ivoted at 1:00 pm., but I believe that the schoolboard purposely under allocated resources tothe polling places that voted against the lastreferendum.


47/231

First went to Eagle Point where we have alwaysvoted for the school budget. Were told to go toMater Christi. A lot of confusion at the school.

People did not know what line to go to. Waited

at least a half an hour to get the ballot and thenanother half an hour to actually vote.Witnessed one woman at the table where yougot your ballot, get up and was rummagingthrough folders that were on a chair in back ofher in full view of voters who were in line.Papers were out with no supervision at all.Total chaos with lines overlapping. Votersconfused about which lines were the correct

ones--the line to obtain the ballot or the line toactually vote. One voting machine for such alarge crowd was totally inefficient.


48/231

To Whom it may concern:I am disturbed and deeply disappointed as tohow the voting went yesterday. At 5:30pm, wewere in line for over an hour at the AlbanySchool of Humanities in order to caste our vote.Never during all my voting experience in Albany(nearly 30 years) have I encountered such awaiting time. Volunteers spent extra time writing

down our names and ballot, when asked "why"

they responded that they were instructed to doso by the school election board. I question thelegality of this.When I hear all the problem this voting processencountered, I wonder how many people wholeft the voting places without casting their votedue to the too long waiting were seniors whowould have voted "no" to have their taxesincreased.

What a biased process!Sincerely,Barbara Shepard


49/231

I signed in, got my ballot filled it out and put it inthe most likely looking available place, a slot ina box that had other ballots.nothing wasidentified as a machine and I was too proud toask. I wonder if my vote was counted. How do

the totals at Pine Hills Elementary tally with thenumber of voters who signed in and with thenumber of ballots handed out?


50/231

CORNER of the library. I think three additionaltables had been brought in, and it seemed nousual tables were removed. This created anarrow, irregular obstacle course to move infrom sign-in to the ballot-filling kiosks and thenon to the place to put your ballot (if you couldfind it at all, see below). It was next toimpossible for seniors to navigate this peculiararrangement of furniture. There wasEXTREME CONGESTION with tripping

hazards at the sign-up because the peopleleaving had to squeeze by (with their helpersand canes) the people who were entering. I amsorry to say, it seemed like a deliberateinhospitable act. I have voted at Eagle Pointbefore, and it was NOT this way.

2. When I arrived at the sign-in desk, a verynice gentleman volunteer was finishing up his

previous sign-up. A woman seated behind a

large table across the narrow aisle holleredover to him that he did not have to write downthe address of the person (who had just voted)right away. I said, "It's all right, finish up." Shebellowed, "You can do that later." Thevolunteer became a little flustered, stopped hisrecording of the previous voter's name afterwriting down only her first name. This just didnot seem good to me; so, on my way out I

reminded him to finish and told him the voter'slast name. I think he got to it. I think theprocedure should be standardized.


51/231

I voted at Eagle Point, the library was too small

and not the proper space for voting. Therewere not enough machines and only 3 peopleto handle the voting.

It was a disgrace and un-American how thevoting across the city took place. I demand avote in April! We need to better educate ourstudents, a new expensive school is not theanswer. We have many new schools in Albany,

have increased students scores?

The high taxes are killing the city of Albany.


52/231

I actually first drove to Holy Names Acadamy,where I typically vote. When I realized that I haddriven to "the wrong spot," I changed mycourse to Mater Christi, where fellow voterswere walking around, trying to find a correctentrance. The set up to sign in was extremelystrange and very inefficient. Voters who weretrying to enter to cast their vote were competing

with voters trying to leave (one way in one wayout). I waited in line for about 20/25 minutes,which I personally was OK with. I didn't haveanywhere to be. The poor women in front of mewas in line, and was told she was in the wrongline when she was up next, and needed to go tothe other line where they would have her lastname. There were NO signs for last names. Iwas given a piece of paper, checked off my

vote, folded my piece of paper over, and gave it

to a man who placed it in a folder who was busysigning people in. Some people were very vocalabout their unhappiness with the lack oforganization, the time for the lines and thepaper "ballots." I feel that if the majority of thepeople vote in favor of the project, then so be it.But please do this fairly. I honestly left feelinguneasy about my experience, especiallyhanding a folded piece of paper to a man who

was busy taking down names. I have never feltthis way in any other voting experience. Thankyou for taking the time to read!


53/231

My experience voting for the Albany CitySchool's referendum were as followsparking and access to the building was acongested mess

only one entrance was unlockedtwo other doors that lead to the voting roomwere lockedroom was way too small for votingtwo lines (depending on where you name fell inthe alphabet) to get your ballotthen another line to the one and only votingmachineall lines were long, zig-zagged around the room

lines criss-crossed one another so it was easy

to be in the wrong line for a long period of timebefore you realized itno signage to let you know where you neededto befive poll workers, two of them did not seem toknow what they were doingtook about 40 minutes from time I entered thebuilding til I castmy vote-does not include time spent finding a

parking spot and walking from parking tobuildingI saw a number of people leave without voting


54/231

First the election was not well advertised mostlikely to keep people from voting. I only found

out about it because my neighbor had a sign inher back yard and inquired.

I went to my old polling place. It was closed. Ifound a lady who told me to go to eagle pointwhere the voting machine was jammed and thewanted us to give them the ballot and theywould feed it later into the machine. No privacyat all. They would know how we voted. I was

there for thirty minutes waiting my turn. At NO

time did they asks for ID to verify the personvoting was who he was. I was them told to go toChristi mater school on hurst where the lineswere so long that I saw people leaving. It waschaos. Again of the four people handing outballot only one person checked ID. I was notchecked. The vote was a shame, no privacy,lack of ballots, extremely long lines I waited atChristi one hour and 15 minutes. My spouse

voted at a different time and also saw peopleleave and not voted due to the chaos and longwait.


55/231

Walked to Eagle Point to vote on the AHSrenovation. It's two blocks away from myhouse. My name was not on the list so I filledout an affidavit. While there I notice they werehaving problems with one of the voting

machines. I also notice the people running the

voting were note the same people who run itduring election time. I over heard one guy sayhe lost count of the people signing up to vote.They were also sending a lot of people to MaterChristi to vote. So, if they too walked to EaglePoint did they go home and then drive to MaterChristi?So I asked around and found out I should havegone to MC, I txt my wife so she would know

were to go. It was a disaster over there too.What a mess at both places on such animportant matter.


56/231

I had to return to Albany School of Humanities4 times between approx 5:30pm and 8:00pm

before I actually got to vote. First trip the linewas too long to wait, the next 2 times therewere no ballots...on my 4th trip I voted.

At Mater Christi school they ran out of ballets. Iwaited in line for 45 minutes and had to leave. Iwas unable to return to vote.


57/231

At Mater Christi school they ran out of ballets. Iwaited in line for 45 minutes and had to leave. Iwas unable to return to vote.

I voted at ASH on Whitehall and when I arrivedaround 6:25pm I was informed that they wereout of ballots and that someone went to getmore ballot forms but they had no idea howlong it would it would be before they returnedwith the forms. They didn't provide anyadditional options for me other to return or wait.

I had my two children with me that hadn't eatendinner yet so waiting and returning both weredifficult options. When my husband arrivedhome I was able to run back to ASH to vote8:15pm and the ballot forms were available.


58/231

Very long line. Apparently there were supposedto be 2 lines but none of the votes knew untilwe reached the front. They couldn't find my

name in their book. I then had to fill out a formand put all my personal info on the front of theenvelope (name, social security number, etc.)


59/231

I had a very difficult time finding my pollingplace. I looked it up online and it said thenormal place that I am used to for mostelections which is the Salvation Army. However,when I went there I was told the vote was at the

Giffen Elementary School. So I drove over tothe Giffen Elementary school, I walked allaround the building and tried every normalentrance. They were all locked and I saw nosigns indicating where the voting was takingplace. I then returned to my car and tried tosearch for the polling places/contactinformation online again. This time I was able tofind a phone number which I called. I asked

where the polling place was and the lady asked

for my address. I provided it and she told me itwas Giffen Elementary. I asked her how to getinto the building and told her that I had triedmany doors and they were all locked. She putme on hold and then came back and told me itwas the side door off of Morton Ave. I wentlooking for the entrance again and eventuallyfound it, but it was not easy to find and was notsigned properly to allow someone unfamiliar

with the school to find the voting place. I coulddefinitely see how many people would havegiven up, I almost did myself.


60/231

To start I was directed to go to my usual votingpoll and when we arrived noone was there. Wethen went on the internet and it was difficult tofind the right poll, but once we finally did it wasNOT our normal poll. Finally we arrived to along line which was no problem because Iunderstood it was a big vote. Several voterswho normally vote at Humanities were turnedaway after waiting on line being told they were

at the wrong poll. After waiting on line for 45minutes I was told they were out of ballots.Everyone waited at least 1/2 hour longer untileventually the entire place was empty becausethere were elderly voters and those with kidswho just couldn't stand there all night. I wouldguess over 100 voters came and went withoutvoting. I was told this was happening all over. Iwent home to feed my family and went back to

the poll only to be told still no ballots. I waited

1/2 hour still no ballots. I had to leave to tend tomy elderly mother and could not make it backbefore polls closed. It felt like they purposelymade it as difficult as possible. I have never feltso denied the Democratic process. The onlyright thing to do is offer a revote or allow thosewho did not sign the votor registry the right tocast a vote at perhaps a special election. Theboard should be ashamed at what happened

and they should have some integrity if theywant us to trust them with millions of tax payer$$ and state $$$.


61/231

Was told to go to normal poll and it was locked.Finally found right poll and they ran out ofballots. I left and went back 3 times and eachtime no ballots. So I was denied my right tovote because I could not stand at the polls all

night. I am outraged by this. The board slantefthis vote by making as difficult as possible justto get what they wanted.


62/231

At 6pm I arrived at ASH And was told they ran out of ballots and were

waitingFor some to be delivered.I could come back in an hour, they should havethem by then.I was determined to vote on this issue so I didgo back. But it was a nasty night to be out.


63/231

Catherine's (my usual voting place) and there

was one huge line of about 50 – 60 people

maybe more and then after a 10 minute waitsomeone announced that if you name was L-Zyou could form another line. So we did. Peoplewere talking about how they had gone to theirusual voting place but were told that it was thewrong place and were turned away and senthere. While waiting in that line they announcedthat they had run out of ballots and we had to

wait for more to come in People left. Someasked when the polls closed so that they couldcome back but all were angry. After anotherwait were told that there were no more of theofficial ballots and that they wanted us to usewhat looked like a made up paper ballot. Apiece of photocopied paper with a paragraph onit and a Yes and No at the bottom to indicateones preference. More people left. When I

got to the vote signature table and signed my

name next to my printed name I was given aballot and went to a station and checked myvote. Then I was told to fold it in half and give itback to the lady who gave it to me. She stuck itin a manila folder along with the other ballots.There was no security no privacy no feeling ofassurance that my vote was going to becounted. Outside in the parking lot I talked withother voters and we questioned whether or not

they would sort and count only the Yes votesand destroy the No votes. Some people saidthat they voted No and also left additional


64/231

Although I received two reminders to vote on

2/9/16 on the Albany High issue, I wasn't told

where to vote. I went to my normal voting placeat the Pine Hills Library and found no votingwas happening nor was there any signindicating where I should go. I went to AlbanyHigh School where I had voted when Pine HillsLibrary was under construction. The lady didn'tsee my name on the registration book andadvised me to check with the school located onNorth Allen Street. I finally did find the correct

place and voted. I also realized that no signswere placed at any of the voting venues toidentify them as polling places.


65/231

Lines were wrapped through the building andthe hallway was packed with people waiting. Ihad my two small children with me and couldn'tpossibly wait to vote in that crowd so late in the

day. I always vote and always bring them withme and this has never been an issue until theother night.


66/231

#1. - I voted at Eagle Point School after drivingfirst to my "regular, usual voting location".

After I arrived at 8am (at my different votinglocation) I still wasn't sure if Eagle Point wasthe correct location but then I saw a man

putting out signs on the one way street offWestern Avenue. SINCE THE USUALVOTING LOCATION WAS CHANGED, ANOTICE ON THE USUAL VOTING BUILDINGWOULD HAVE BEEN HELPFUL TO DIRECTVOTERS WHERE THEY SHOULD GO TOVOTE.

#2. Later that evening while attending a 6pm

meeting at All Saints Parish Center, (corner of

Western Ave and Brevator St) for 2 hours ourmeeting was interrupted by voters thinking thatthey were voting there, at their "usual location"when it was actually another location. I didntknow where to send the confused andfrustrated voters.

Again, since Albany made a decision to changevoting locations for such an important vote, they

should have posted a sign at the "usual votinglocations" to inform and direct voters wherethey should go.


67/231

I am a registered voter in Ward 8 District 8 and

was assigned to vote at ASH. When I arrived(around 6:00pm) at ASH, there was a very longline that was not moving. After a 1/2hr ofwaiting in the line which didn't move, I went upto the table to ask what was going on. Thevolunteer told me that there were no moreballots, but were hoping to get some more,although she didn't know how long that couldbe. I wasn't offered any paper ballot to vote on,

but she did offer to double check my name in

the book to ensure I was in the right place. Iwas then informed my name wasnt in the bookand that I was assigned to the City RecDepartment. I left ASH and drove to City RecDepartment and was informed there were nomore ballots there either. I asked them to checkmy name in the book. It wasnt in the book andwas told I needed to go to ASH to vote. Given Ialready knew my name wasn't in the book at

ASH, and they did not have ballots, I decided Ineeded to end my efforts of trying to vote (itwas almost 7:30pm at this point)


68/231

The polling place was jammed with people. Noofficial was available to direct us. People in thelines told us which line to stand in to get aballot. The desks for marking the ballot weresurrounded by people. I could see how otherswere marking their ballots, and I expect peoplecould see how I was marking mine. No one wasgiven a folder to cover the ballot, as we havebeen given in other elections. Therefore, I could

also see the marked ballots of people who were

standing in line to put their ballot into the onemachine available. Another machine there wasnot being used. I presume it was broken. Theline to cast the ballot snaked around the entireperimeter of the room and took about 30minutes to go through. My husband said hesaw people come into the room, look at thelines, and leave without voting. I have beenvoting in Albany since the early '60s, and I have

never before seen such crowds or spent somuch time between entering and casting myballot.


69/231

The first issue was finding our polling location!By the 3rd stop, we realized Mater Christi wasthe right location. It was jam packed withvoters, no organization at all! No one knewwhere to sign in or which snaked line they

needed to stand in. I finally received my ballot,

stood in line for about 30 minutes. Finally awoman came around with a pen and said,"here, just fill in YES now and then it's readywhen you finally get to the machine". I filled inNO and stood another 25 minutes for themachine. She was pressuring everyone to fillout their ballot, not only with a YES vote, but doit without any privacy. The whole experiencewas a debacle from the moment I tried to park

my car! The school board should be ashamedof themselves and everyone needs to demanda new vote. This just isn't right!


70/231

Upon arrival at 5;00 P.M., voters told therewere no more ballots. Several people left. Thenvoters were told there were copies made of theballot for voting. There was no privacy in votingas the room was filled with people waiting to

vote. The completed copy of the ballot was thenplaced inside a manila folder and left on theregistration desk, in my opinion, very insecure.


71/231

I went to vote at my polling place (Mater Christi

School) around 4:45 pm only to find a very long

line. After standing in line the word was passeddown through the crowd that there was notenough ballots, the people in charge wheretrying to get ballots from other polling places. Itwas discussed in the line that there seem to besome confusion (poll watchers) as to how tovote without the proper ballot. Several people,including myself just went home the momentwe heard that. Note: the media is reporting

about a dozen people didn't get to vote, I seena least that many walk away including myself atone polling center, what about across the city?


72/231

This voting process was very unusual andsuspect to irregularities, I have no faith in theoutcome. We went to our usual polling place at

Eagle Point school only to be told to go to MaterChristi, which is nowhere near our home. Wethen found ourselves in a long line, withhundreds of people milling about in a smallspace, very chaotic and understaffed. Therewas only one voting machine, causing a bigbackup, took us an hour to vote. I observedpeople leaving as they had to pickup kids ormake supper for their family. This was totally

unnecessary and appeared contrived to

dissuade people from voting. Then when I readthat they did not have enough ballots and wentto written forms, which were not controlled, thewhole vote became suspect to manipulation. Ilaughed at the Democrat's caucus process inIowa, but I think Albany surpassed them with anunprofessional and highly suspect vote for ahuge bond issue. We sent a message to theschool board the first time, we do not approve.

It appears they were not happy with that answerso they came back again and perhapscontrived the answer they wanted.


73/231


74/231

I voted at Mater Christi at 4:15 pm. There were

no ballots left. I waited for 30 minutes. Afterthe wait, I signed in at the registration book andmy name was then printed by the school districtemployee onto a separate clip board. She thenhanded me a piece of paper that I checked abox on. It was not a ballot. I checked the box Idesired and then stood with the document for 5minutes. I asked her where I filed thedocument and she took it from me and placed

in a pile under the sign in book on the

registration table. There was no securelocation for my vote. It looked like it was placedin a manila folder on the table. I have concernthat my vote left unsecured and could havebeen uncounted. When I left the polling placethere was a very long line. I explained to thepeople in the line - that there was two lines -one for the first half of the alphabet and one forthe second. There were no signs - so people

were waiting in the wrong lines. My husbandarrived to vote and left - returning to vote laterbecause the line was too long.


75/231

I was supposed to vote at ASH. I arrived after

work. The lines were very long. Finally as I

neared the head of the line, the ballots ran out.The staff told us they had called 30 minutesbefore to say they were low on ballots. Theytried to call again and their call went to voicemail. After waiting longer to see if ballots wouldarrive, I finally had to leave at 6:25 as I hadanother meeting I had to attend. Many otherpeople were arriving as I left. There wereprobably 50 people waiting when the ballots ran

out plus those coming in as I left. I was thereover 45 minutes and did not get to vote. I do notbelieve this voting process passes the sniff test!


76/231

My wife & I went to the old School 16 on N. Allen St at 3 on Tuesday. We had a short line 810 people lined up to sign in. I noticed a line atthe 1 (?) voting machine & no one was usingthe voting machine. It turned out it was jammed. A worker was opening & closing themachine. He called someone (Albany CountyBOE ?) an stated that it would be at least 20minutes for some one to show up to fix the

machine. We could slip our ballots in a slot inthe machine to be counted later. That is whatwe did. Why not have 2 machines? Cost?


77/231

My polling place was moved and I was notnotified ahead of time. My neighbors had thesame experience. I voted but they did not- One

because she did not know where the North Albany Academy was and the other becauseshe was afraid of that neighborhood after dark.


78/231

My wife and I experienced a slight delay invoting. We arrived at 10:00 a.m. at MaterChristi. We found two tables set up to serve 4different sections of the alphabet. Twoworker/volunteers were stationed at eachsection.Two individuals were ahead of us at the

last part of the alphabet.

The workers were both helping a man who wasat the wrong polling place; they directed him to ASH based on their review of their greenpamphlet.Next an elderly lady occupied the workersbecause she was also at the wrong pollingplace. Based on her street address theydirected her to Eagle Point School, completelyacross town!

Our turn was next and we voted without delay.Who knows if the two people who were re-directed ever made it to vote.


79/231

Upon entering the Pine Hills Elementary school,there were three lines for voting. No directionwas given by personnel as to what the linesrepresented. The voters in line had to informnewcomers of the apparent alphabeticalassignment of the lines. When a voter

approached the registration table, my husband

and I observed that the personnel often did notcheck signatures. In addition, a child waspassing out the paper ballots. Also, there wasno instruction given as to where to place thoseballots. People wander around the machine,placed ballots in the wrong spot or simply left.We stood by the machine and told voters for atime where to correctly cast their ballots. One ofthe personnel eventually started collecting

some ballots in a manila envelope even thoughthere was there was an emergency slot on themachine for that purpose.


80/231

The link on the Times Union article to this site

is broken - you get a Page Cannot Be Found

error. It is on this page:http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Albany-High-project-opponents-mull-legal-challenge-6820498.php

You are probably losing a lot of people withstories.

The link is coded as:

http://www.albanytaxpayers.org%2C/

The "%2C" needs to be taken off.


81/231

I was personally able to vote after waiting 30

minutes at School 19, however 2 people I waswith were forced to leave due to the wait. Theissue was the long, long line. I saw people whosaw the line just turn around and walk out.People didn't know there was two separatelines depending on last name because no onethere got out of their seat to address it. Thewhole thing seemed like amateur hour. It's hardenough to get people out to vote to begin with

and then these shenanigans take place. Noquestion that people saw a gigantic line andsaid to hell with it.


82/231

I personally was able to vote in the correctplace . This is because I knew from a priormistake and the fact that I work for the city andas a poll insp that my regular election andschool board site were different. Once there thesite was not well marked set up properly andminimumally staffed. They could barely takecare of me at 8 am . I am sure they had great

difficulty later in the day when people were

more inclined to vote. The general public canbarely handle voting at the correct place forgeneral election . what better way to get yourproposal passed than to not have people ableto vote . I do not feel the board did a good jobletting voters know where when to vote andespecially the Truthfulness of the the proposalwithout the smoke and mirrors routine that hasbeen going on. Have the election the same as

the general during a primary or the regular likeit was in November it's easier and fairer foreveryone


83/231

I went to my regular voting location (PartridgeSt Hybernian Hall) only to find no one there.Went to School 19 on New Scotland to find thatwas where I was to vote. Never received anynotification of any change in where I would votefor the HS school vote. How many just didn'tvote because they didn't know where they were

supposed to go? It was just pot luck that I hadthe time to drive around to find my votinglocation.


84/231

I voted up at Eagle Point and the machine was

down, wouldn’t accept the ballots. Which at this

point I was waiting for 20 minutes for the lady to

fix the machine. She decided to have us allfeed the ballots through a front slot (on themachine) that appeared to just drop down tothe bottom of the machine.

How were they differentiated from the previouscounted ballots? How were these ballotscounted? Where they combined with thoseballots already counted? Did they reopen the

machine and feed them through the normalprocess? Are they just left at the bottom andhand counted? If so at what point?


85/231

The Albany School of Humanities. I knewsomething was wrong right away as the 2 lineswere almost out the door. We waited for 10minutes, and the line never moved. During thattime, only one person voted... the voting boothswere empty.

The people manning the tables seemed to bedoing everything in their power to "slow" theprocess down. No explanation was given for

the slowness of the lines...

Returning Later @ 7:30, it took us twentyminutes to move through the line. I doubt thatthere were 10 people in my line at that time.When I got to the table I gave the person myname, Charles George. My wife, Mary Georgehad just voted. The person looked at meblankly as if she had no idea how to find my

name in the list. I looked down for her and

said, "Here it is!" right here.. I'll just sign andmove along... She didn't appear too happyabout this happening so quickly! My name wasnext on the list right after my wife's name, Thisshould not have been a problem.

The people manning the table were not helpful,and did not appear to want to help.

It looked to me like a deliberate attempt tomake the process so difficult that people wouldgive up and leave....


86/231

At Albany School of Humanities, I waited in line(that was moving at a remarkably slow pace)for approximately 45 minutes. They ran out ofballots when I was half way through the line.Between 30-50 voters were in line at the timethey ran out, and because they had noindication if or when they would get more

ballots, the majority of us left. I had an

obligation. Others that were coming into thebuilding as we were leaving turned around andgot back in their cars. This happened between6 and 7 pm.

I also would add that even though I normallyvote at St. Sophia, there was a sign on the doorwhen we got there telling voters to go to ASH orMater Cristi. Many guessed wrong and ended

up having to wait in line at both locations.Voters in line at ASH told us they also ran out ofballots elsewhere.


87/231

Voted at 700 Washington Ave (AHS) around4:20. This was the voting site for the 11th Wardonly, and my wife and I were the only voters onhand. Our voter numbers as written next to ournames on a separate sheet by one of the pollinspectors were said to be 37 and 38. The

DS200 ballot counter read 73 and 74 after eachof our ballots were scanned. Significant gap innumbers - perhaps an issue, perhaps not.

My concern with voting was the fact that noidentification was checked.


88/231

I went to my polling place, Hibernian Hall on

Ontario St, but there was no one there. I wentto School 19. There was a long line. I waiteded45 minutes, during that time several peoplecame and looked at the line and left. Therewere two workers who had the books with thenames and one who handed out ballots. Neverhave I seen so few workers at an election.There was no way an elderly person wouldhave been able to stand in line to 45 minutes to

an hour.

I care less about the outcome of this vote thanthe fact that we do not know what the resultswould have been if it were run correctly.

It defies reason that such an important votewould have had so few resources dedicated toit.

How is it possible to the school board to certifytheir own election? That is a clear conflict ofinterest.


89/231

around 6 p.m. The person in front of meobtained the last scanner ballot. I was given awhite sheet of paper entitled a "Paper Ballot"and an accompanying Gray envelope with an Affidavit typed on the outside of the envelope. Iwas told to fill out the Paper Ballot and at thetable and put it in the Gray envelope and thensign the envelope. I told them that I had seensome conflicting information about whether an Affidavit Ballot was legal, so they gave me the

phone number of a woman at theSuperintendent's office named Catherine, Ibelieve. I explained to her that I wanted to waitfor a scanner ballot and she told me that theywould be on their way. When I asked for a timeframe, she said she couldn't tell me. I asked ifthey would be there before 9 p.m. and she saidthat she could not guaranty that they would.She told me to fill out of the white Paper Ballot.

When I went to complete the Paper Ballot and

then the Gray Affidavit envelope, I saw that itcalled for a notary block. I asked for a notaryand no one there was a notary. So, I calledCatherine again. I told her about the Grayenvelope and she told me not to complete thatform. She told me to complete a Paper Ballotand to put that in a white envelope to becollected by the person running the poll. Afterthe call, I told the person running the election at

the school and he said that they didn't havewhite envelopes and to fill out the Gray one. Itold him that Catherine had told me not to, so


90/231

I experienced significant delays at my pollinglocation.

First, it was the first time I've ever voted in thatpart of the building.

Second, when I entered, it was a mad house. A

high volume of voters should never be thereason that a polling location becomes overrun.There was absolutely no structure to themadness.

Third, I found the line furthest from the doorand went to the back. I waited a half hour toinch toward the front. As I neared, one of thepoll workers directed a woman from another

line to get out of line and get into ours. He then

shouted that he told everyone to line upalphabetically. Most people groaned andswitched lines. Some people shouted back athim. It was unorganized and highlyunprofessional to engage in such behavior. Iwill also note that he made no announcementswhile I was there other than when he shouted atthe entire crowd trying to vote. Some people leftfrom line and others at the door never came in

to vote because of this madness. Signs wouldhave been helpful. Not being yelled at wouldhave been helpful too.


91/231

The line over at Mater Christi was ridiculouslong and my wife and I were just not able towait in a line of that magnitude. We have 2 kidsunder the age of 2 so this was just not possible.I am a patient person and I understand thatlines can get long but there was just something

not quite right about the situation. My wife and Iwere very disappointed we were not given thechance to vote.


92/231

I was not informed ahead where my pollingplace is. When I got to the polling place where Iusually voted, I was told that it was transferred

to another place. I got to vote but maybe thereare other voters who may not have bothered togo to the new polling place.


93/231

I arrived at the polling place at 610pm to find aroomful of people (60-80) in three lines. [Inprevious school votes there, I found 0-2 votersand a process of about one minute.] A voterdirected us to get in the first line nearest thedoor. There were three poll workers and one

small child (6-8 years of age) behind thecounter. As we advanced in the first line, themale clerk asked our name and gave a ballot ifwe had a last name from A-G, He pointed outthat lines 2 and 3 were for voters H-O and P-Z.There were no signs advising this.The clerk inthe middle was handling H-O and alsorecording all names on a yellow legal pad.While I was near the front of line #1 the male

clerk stated that there were only 50 ballots left;

he made a phone call. As I was waiting in line#2, clerk #2 left the room and returned withmore ballots. After she had returned and voters were usingthese copied ballots, a man complained thatthe machine was rejecting these ballots. Aftera few minutes it was determined to place theseballots in the emergency bin on the machine. Ivoted and left by 640pm.

The people were restless and complaining. Ido not know how many voters left the roomwithout voting.


94/231

My wife and I went to vote at Mater Cristi. Theline was so long that she missed anappointment she had for 4:30. We wereappalled and shocked by the lack of booths andprivacy stands for so many voters to fill out theirballot. It seemed like a 3rd world country with

only one machine for so many wanting to voteand lack of privacy for our ballots. What adisgrace and travesty on ourfreedom to votewhen it is so mishandled, or is it simplymanipulated ?How can our schools be well administeredwhen even a local voting dayshows such incapability! Spending money oneducating parents&working

with problem students to build both skills and

morality would be far better spent. It would keep more residents in Albanywho are leaving due to already being unable topay such high taxes; and this project assuresus they will soon go up again. It's not buildingsthat teach children skills andintegrity; it's involved parents, teachers and cityofficials showing commitment, caring andhonesty, and that means using resources for

their benefit .... not for unsound power and politics.

while I was standing in line to vote there were at

least 3 voters that were at the wrong pollingplace. Usually we vote at Holy Names, but itwas changed this time . It was confusing


95/231

I checked online on the morning of the 9th and

was informed that Ward 8 was to vote at 108

Whitehall.

We got to that voting site and were informed(after a very brief wait) that our polling placewas Mater Cristi school.

The wait at Mater Cristi was too long especiallyfor my partner who cannot stand for more thana few minutes without severe pain. We left &

due to previous commitments we were not ableto make another attempt. We would havevoted NO


96/231

There were no ballots when I arrived to vote at

the School of Humanities on Whitehall Road

around 6:30PM. After a wait of 1/2 hour wewere given paper absentee ballots to fill out. Ifilled mine out and placed in in the slot of thevoting machine. It was not tallied electronicallyand I'm not sure my vote was even recorded. Iwas not even told where to place the ballot; I 'massuming I put it in the right slot, but there wereno personnel around to ask. This was highlyunprofessional. There really should be a re-vote

because these irregularities call into questionthe final tally, which according to reports was a288 vote difference out of about 8000 cast.


97/231

does not matter as the process was botchedand rigged as the voting process was done bythe school board not the board of elections.Since the vote was yes the fix was in and seethat the vote was yes there won;t be anothervote the school board won great for them sucksfor us that wanted to vote fairly and sucks forus that now have to have taxes increased topay for the hs that is disrespected by thestudents and disrespected by facilites, and the

school district for not tending to the up keepnow you want us to pay for bigger and betterwhen you could handle what was nevermaintend thanks a bunch.

We have a neighborhood website that we postinfo on. Many of responded this is myresponse to the neighborhood site the secondpost is my post that I put on Facebook and the

local news media.

Joe and everyone else. unprepared is an understatement. My theory then you will really seehow bothced. ok If you take the numbers of5300 expected to vote for the WHOLE city of Albany divide by 3. Why three aprox average ofvoters of age per housing unit such as house,condo, apt. not whole apt building but each aptunit that pays rent. Why I am figuring mom,

dad, and one child old enough to vote divide5300 by 3 you get 1,766. Really the schoolboard thought that only 1766 units were going


98/231

I did not have problem when voting on 2/9/16.However, I feel there are several issues whythis vote should be recalled.

1) Why was this referendum put to a vote inFebruary instead of May when school budgets

are normally voted on?

2) The school board has not been fullytransparent.

3) How is it possible that the school board wasnot prepared for a large voter turnout when thereferendum so very important to all taxpayinghomeowners.?

4) We need to be assured that the "substitute"ballots were properly secured and tallied andthat all absentee ballots were counted.


99/231

I went to Henry Johnson Library and when I told

the poller where I live she says "you have to go

vote at Hackett School". I said no I don't andshowed her the website showing my district hadmany choices in where to vote including theLibrary. I said, "by the way I want to yes". Hereyes lit up and said "ok I then can give you apaper ballot." It all seemed very shaky.Especially her not knowing what districts couldvote there. I came to realize I could have votedin every polling spot if I wanted. What is more

disconcerting is why couldn't people vote anywhere they wanted? it seemed like a big scamto me. Another black eye for this area.


100/231

are provided here to document problems with alocal election system. I brought my aunt anduncle to a school budget vote to Mater ChristiSchool. They are over age 80 and waited over30 minutes to sign the register. The pollingstation ran out of pens to mark ballots.Relatives had no privacy marking their ballots.They waited 25 minutes to record ballots, sincethere was only one voting machine. Severalelderly people left having health problems,

which disallowed them from standing in longlines to vote. There were no chairs toaccommodate the disabled or aged. No onewas available to help elderly into the structure,and I now realize there was no publicannouncement offering the elderly rides to vote.With large crowds, there were fire safety andsecurity issues.

After bringing relatives home, I went to vote at

my usual location, Eagle Point ElementarySchool, where I waited 25 minutes in line tosign the register. They were mandating thatinspectors write down the name and address ofevery voter. They told me they were "ordered"to do that. I questioned the legality and askedpermission to review the register they werecreating; it did not have any institutional nameon it. I was not sure who would retain

information or if it would be made public. Theydid not find my name in any register anddirected me to All Saints School. (The


101/231

The first time I went to vote there was a man

standing outside the entrance to the school. He

announced that there was at least a one hourwait to vote. I and five other people entering atthat time turned around and left. It was about4:45 pm.I came back about 6:30 and again the lineswere astounding. I was determined to wait andso I did. I did witness several couples give upand leave however.I do wonder about the other people who left at

4:45. Did they ever return? Maybe work orpersonal obligations made it impossible forthem to try to vote againn.


102/231

I went to School 16 just after 7am, but after Ifilled out my ballot I found that the machineswere not working. They instructed me to putmy ballot in an envelope and they wrote myname on the envelope and told me to come

back. I went back after 9am, and they gave methe envelope back and I placed it in themachine.


103/231

while voting at Pine HillsElementary School, 41 North Allen Street, Albany, NY. We have contacted the AlbanyCounty Board of Elections twice to report theissues we encountered, but they have notreturned our calls. We thought we wouldprovide this summary of our concerns in thehopes that appropriate action will be taken tonullify the vote and order a re-vote at a laterdate.

My wife went to vote at 11:30 am on Tuesday,2/9/2016 and encountered seriousdisorganization -- polling staff asked individualsto yell out their names in order to get voters intothe right lines to sign the registry and obtain aballot. Next, there were no privacy screens inplace at the tables where one fills out theirballots. No pens were available to complete

ones ballot; voters were encouraged to borrow

another individual's pen after they completedtheir ballot.

My daughter and I reported to the location tocast our votes a little after 6 pm on Tuesdayevening. We encountered the samedisorganization in that no signage was in placeto organize voters into lines to sign the registry. A young man finally yelled out for voters to get

in three lines based upon the first letter of theirlast name. Staff at the registry tables werepassing registration books back and forth as


104/231

When I went to vote yesterday at the ward15voting location, Eagle Point school, the set updid not comply with handicapped access

regulations, making it difficult and in many

cases impossible for elderly hanicappedindividuals to vote.

Also several people who went to thePresbyterian church on Western Ave in Albany,our normal voting location , were directeddeliberately, by a note on the door, to MaterChristi Church , New Scotland Ave. Out andout lie. Confusion prohibited voters from ward

15 from voting.Sleazy and underhanded tactics. Dirty election.I call and insist on a revote.


105/231

I was at the School of HUmanties when theyran out of ballots. I left and due to familyresponsibilities, could not return. I was going tovote YES, just like others who left. So, quit

stirring up the discontent, especially if you liveoutside the City and this doesn't affect yourproperty taxes.


106/231

We are temporary out of the country and spentover $80 going back and forth with ballot.Election should have been held during normalelection process in November by Board ofElection and not by the school board during atime when voters may be away for winter

months. question...if the school board had wonthis past November when it was voted on wouldthey have held this second voting process???


107/231

I arrived at Hackett Middle School and saw nosigns indicating it was a polling place. Furtherinvestigation led me to one small sign near thesouth driveway. I followed it to a locked door"out back (c.10 AM). Knocked (no response). Iwas leaving when the door opened and I wasdirected to a small back room where I was the

only voter (several election employees). Easilymy strangest voting experience in forty-plusyears in Albany.

I went to the library and waited for one minute.I signed the book and voted. Parking wasample and voting was easy.


108/231

We voted at Hackett and I was #410 and likethe people immediately in front of me, Ireceived an absentee ballot. They said theymight get more ballots in but couldn't be sure. Iwas instructed to put my name and ballot

number on the outside of an envelope and the# inside on the informal ballot. We got there at8:10 voted at 8:30.


109/231

I just want to register my total lack ofconfidence in the Tuesday vote.The ineptitudeof the school district "leaders" is astounding.I was able to vote w/o incident Tues afternoonat Montessori Magnet. However, by the time my

husband got there he was given a different typeof ballot that was then handed back to aworker.


110/231

I just want to register my total lack ofconfidence in the Tuesday vote.The ineptitudeof the school district "leaders" is astounding.I was able to vote w/o incident Tues afternoonat Montessori Magnet. However, by the time my

husband got there he was given a different typeof ballot that was then handed back to aworker.


111/231

I voted at the school on Tremont Street Albany,Tuesday evening, 2/9/16 at 6:42 PM.There were no ballots, and I had to vote onpaper. When the individual took my ballot, heput it in a manila envelop stuffed with dozens of

other ballots. No lock box, just a manila

envelope on a chair.When I served in Iraq, a war torn, third worldCountry, I as an MP oversaw security for saidelections.even there, they had a lock box for the ballots.Not in the City of Albany.I feel that my vote could easily been changed ortampered with.I have no, no, no, confidence that my vote was

recorded as vote. I feel betrayed, and used. Iam a Veteran, and to have my vote stolen, as Ibelieve it was, is very traumatic to me.


112/231

Three people in my family voted at Eagle Pointat different times during the day. Everythingthere ran smoothly. No surprises. In and out ina few minutes. Nothing negative - except ourNeanderthal neighbors.


113/231

I went to vote at my regular voting place onWestern Avenue at 530 which I believe is

called all saints academy and was told therewas no voting at that site and they did not knowwhere to direct me. I had to spend time in mycar looking up voting places on my phone forthe correct site for my address. We did notreceive any post cards telling us the site hadbeen changed. I then drove to Mater Christischool , had a great deal of trouble findingparking, the line was out the door, and it took

me well over an hour to finally cast a vote. I'm a

senior and am fortunately able to do computersearches on my phone. I know that there aremany who are not and most likely gave up andwent home. At the voting place there was onlyONE machine for hundreds of people. I wastold this same location had also run out ofballots earlier. I was very disheartened at howthis vote was managed. It felt like they weretrying to make it hard for people to vote. I would

like to see the current vote disqualified or at thevery least a second vote held for those whowere unable to vote.


114/231

I was not informed where I was to vote, had tofind the location myself.I agree with TU thereshould be a revote.Our taxes are too high.Whycan't they rehab the building.It seems ridiculousto spend millions and have our taxes increase,for some students to cause destruction.Themoney could be spent more efficiently.Wouldlike to leave NYS. Kathy Sheehan is too

frivolous with our money. Not a good rep for thecity of Albany. She does not have our bestinterests.


115/231

I was not informed where I was to vote, had tofind the location myself.I agree with TU thereshould be a revote.Our taxes are too high.Whycan't they rehab the building.It seems ridiculousto spend millio

VoterComplaintList2.16.16pdf

Documents