The Cornwall Democrat
In case you had any doubts, here’s an exhaustive exploration of some colorful facts about Steve Brescia, the notoriously belligerent county legislator and mayor of Montgomery running against Democratic State Senator James Skoufis.
This is not someone New Yorkers can afford to have in Albany. Click the image to get the facts, and let’s do everything we can to re-elect James Skoufis.
Governor Cuomo’s office sent the following email out today:
Dear New Yorker,
The unofficial start of fall is here.
Yesterday, on Labor Day, we honored the dedicated men and women in New York and across our country who make up our workforce, and we had special reason to celebrate them this year. During New York's long and continuing fight against COVID, it was our workers, including the men and women of organized labor, who showed up every day and risked their lives to protect all of us.
As we enter a new, post-Labor Day phase of the pandemic that presents new challenges, I want to update you on a few important matters.
School Reopening
First is the issue of schools. I recognize that many parents and teachers are nervous, and they have good reason to be.
While we cannot eliminate the risks of COVID, we can arm parents and teachers with the facts. To that end, the State is requiring all school districts to report daily data on the COVID infection rate and new cases at every school. This information will be publicly available on a new online dashboard that will have constantly updated data for your school.
In addition, the State launched a SUNY COVID-19 Case Tracker that provides real-time, up-to-date data on COVID-19 testing and other vital information at each of SUNY's 64 colleges and universities.
With this transparently available data, parents and communities will be in a better position to make decisions and stay safe.
Voting
Second is the issue of voting. New York has taken a host of measures to make voting safer and easier during the pandemic.
For the first time in our state's history, all registered voters can request an absentee ballot (under the "temporary illness" excuse). If you choose to vote by absentee ballot, then there are several ways you can cast your completed, signed ballot.
1. Put it in the mail ensuring it receives a postmark no later than November 3
2. Drop it off at an Early Voting poll site between October 24 and November 1
3. Drop it off at a poll site on November 3 by 9pm
4. Drop it off at your county Board of Elections Office starting September 8 through no later than November 3 by 9pm (see the list of county Boards of Elections Offices here)
In addition to absentee voting, New Yorkers can also take advantage of Early Voting. For nine days, from October 24 to November 1, registered voters can cast their vote in-person at an early polling site. Of course, New Yorkers can still vote in-person on Election Day, November 3, as well.
Whatever method you choose, make sure your voice is heard. Learn more about Early Voting and Absentee Voting.
I want to take a moment to thank you for your cooperation and responsibility over the past few months. Together we brought the infection rate down by taking simple, effective precautions like wearing a mask and getting tested.
This new phase we are entering will test our diligence. We must continue to be careful and smart. It's up to all of us to ensure our continued success in the weeks and months ahead.
Ever Upward,
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
Click here to get on our list for local campaign signs for your lawn (Congress, State Senate, Assembly, and judgeships). And keep an eye out for how to get your Cornwall Biden-Harris signs—details coming soon!
Sebastian Steudtner, a German pro surfer, rode a wave over 115 feet tall at Nazare, Portugal.. pic.twitter.com/I152ySKx6N
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden_) September 7, 2020
There is no bottom.
From the article in The Atlantic: “Trump, while standing by Robert Kelly’s grave, turned directly to his father and said, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”
Do you know any servicemembers or veterans? If they don’t already know, now is the time to show them who Donald Trump really is.
As of today, New York State’s absentee ballot request portal is online. If you haven’t already requested one & plan to vote absentee, request your ballot now.
Senator James Skoufis is well known to most Cornwall voters. First elected to represent us in the Assembly in 2012 our senator is completing his first term in the state senate. The senator may be best known for his outstanding constituent service, often getting personally involved. He and his staff assisted over 4000 individuals with unemployment claims during the pandemic.
Senator Skoufis is also known for his independence, often butting heads with fellow Democrat, Governor Cuomo. It is that independent streak, no doubt, that earned him the leadership of the Senate Investigations and Government Operations Committee in his first term.
Our senator is also known as someone that gets things done for us in Cornwall. For starters we can look at the long-awaited repairs to the 9w bridges. Your editor was told at a public hearing that those projects were not expected to begin for at least another five years – if the money was still available at that time.
In Albany Senator Skoufis introduced about 280 bills since starting in the Senate. In his first year, he passed more bills than any other freshman senator in New York history. Meanwhile James’ successor in the 99th Assembly District has been totally ineffective as assemblyman.
The Colin-oscopy: An Examination of Colin Schmitt’s Record
In keeping with this month’s voting rights theme, we look at Colin Schmitt’s votes on voting. Since 2019, as the Assembly’s leader in voter suppression, Colin has consistently voted against bills which make voter registration more accessible and the process of voting safer and easier.
Colin voted no on each of these key bills:
A120 clarifies a court’s ability to take sworn testimony from a voter about the authenticity of his or her own signature.
A774 authorizes pre-registration for individuals at least 16 years of age and required the adoption of policies to encourage student voter registration.
A775 requires that the Board of Elections transfer the registration and enrollment of a voter who has moved to their new residence within New York State.
A779 consolidates primary election dates and ensures the timely transmission of ballots to military voters stationed overseas.
A780 extends the voter registration cutoff date.
A10807 allows local Boards of Election to expand the timeframe for voters to submit absentee ballots. Colin was the ONLY “no” vote, ensuring his place as the legislature’s leader in voter suppression.
A8280/S8806 is a comprehensive automatic voter registration bill ensuring that all New Yorkers are registered to vote. Schmit's comments about the bill’s lack of safeguards followed the false Republican narrative that more voters means more fraud.
There is also Colin’s “No” vote on the budget that included funds for early voting, electronic poll books, and online voter registration.
No bill that ensures greater access to the polls can ever be a danger to any democratic process. Restricting the vote is characteristic of autocracies. Any politician with a vested interest in suppressing the vote of the people they govern should not be governing those people in the first place.
Fortunately, all of these bills passed despite Colin’s efforts to ensure otherwise. Another example of his ineffectiveness in Albany.
Cornwall's own, attorney and Assembly candidate Sarita Bhandarkar.
Sarita Bhandarkar is running to represent the 99th Assembly District, seeking the seat seat formerly held by James Skoufis.
Sarita, as she prefers to be known, is “running for Assembly because residents of the Hudson Valley deserve a real advocate in Albany.
“In the Assembly I pledge to stand up against special interests, and fight for a fair shake for our neighbors who need lower taxes, affordable health care coverage, help with the opioid crisis, and better schools.”
Sarita is an attorney and a small business owner with an office on Main Street. Her specialty is elder law, giving her a unique perspective on issues connected with aging including Medicare and Medicaid. As a first generation American Sarita has “been standing up for what's right all my life; now, I'm ready to stand up where it matters most.”
The Orange County Board of Elections is currently seeking registered voters who wish to work as Election Inspectors—the poll workers who identify voters and help you cast your ballot. “We depend on the election workers to help us conduct fair and secure elections each year,” stated Deputy Commissioner Courtney Canfield Greene.
Any registered voter or any seventeen-year-old who pre-registers with the Orange County Board of Elections is eligible. A seventeen-year-old would be required to pre-register to vote, turn eighteen by the General Election and have their parent or guardian’s written permission to work election day. Election workers would be assigned to a polling location in their community or in a neighboring area if they are willing to travel.
Election Workers are compensated for their training and can earn $250 on Election Day. Training will be available in early fall and will accommodate any schedule. Learn more here, or call the Orange County Board of Elections at (845) 360-6515 for Democratic inquiries or email them: elections@orangecountygov.com.
With the passing of John Lewis on July 17, the nation and the world lost more than a civil rights icon. John Lewis was also a legendary Human Being. Congressman Lewis was an advocate, a fighter for the rights of the disenfranchised.
A protégé of Martin Luther King, Jr, John Lewis was the last surviving speaker at the watershed March on Washington in 1963. John Lewis was present when President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act two years later.
With all that is going on in the wake of George Floyd’s murder it may be difficult to see the changes that have taken place since “Bloody Sunday.” The country was witness to that change as the Alabama State Troopers saluted the Congressman's funeral caisson as it crossed the bridge, named for a confederate general and grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, where he was nearly beaten to death by their predecessors. Even more poignant was the image of a white trooper named Bubba (seriously) lifting a little black girl onto his shoulders so she too could see John Lewis cross that bridge one last time.
John Lewis shed blood for the right to vote, as surely as any veteran of any foreign war. It is to John Lewis that this edition of The Cornwall Democrat is dedicated. Rest in Power, Congressman Lewis.
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This election season, Congressman Lewis’s legacy is on the line. Learn what you can do to beat back the Republicans’ attacks on civil rights.
As America enters the final hundred days before the 2020 presidential election, the right to vote has become more tenuous than ever. Since Shelby County v. Holder gutted the 1965 Civil Rights Act in 2013, voter suppression tactics have proliferated across the nation, primarily sabotaging would-be Democratic voting blocs. Voter ID laws, registration restrictions, closing polling sites in historically blue districts, felony disenfranchisement, and egregious gerrymandering have all contributed to a voting system rigged in favor of the Republican Party that crushes marginalized dissent under its heel.
These concerns have been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. As common sense public health guidelines warn that in-person voting would be detrimental to the nation’s coronavirus response, Republicans are staging coordinated attacks on the solvency of the USPS—the only agency with the power to ensure free and fair balloting in the largest mail-in election in US history. In addition, millions of Americans are faced with an eviction crisis of historic proportions, threatened with not only the loss of safe and secure housing but their right to vote. Statistically, those most vulnerable to homelessness are more likely to be people of color, and to cast a blue ballot.
Voter suppression is the lynchpin of the Republican machine. They cling to it so staunchly because they know their power depends upon it. Assemblyman Colin Schmitt’s vocal opposition to the redrawing of gerrymandered district lines and the automatic voter registration bill stems from his fear that extending accessible enfranchisement to all New Yorkers will lead to his, and his party’s, electoral demise.
Times Herald-Record: “Local Democrats, Organizers Praise Kamala Harris as Joe Biden's VP Pick”
New York Times: “The Trump Campaign Accepted Russian Help to Win in 2016. Case Closed.”
Times Herald-Record: Schumer, in Middletown: Stop slowing down USPS, give mail-in ballots First Priority treatment
Associated Press: “Trump campaign’s Russia contacts ‘grave’ threat, Senate says”
Times Herald-Record: “Local Officials Brace for Flood of Absentee Ballots”
Remember: Vote in person if you feel safe doing so—early voting begins October 24. If you vote absentee, request your ballot immediately and mail it back the day you receive it.
Tonight’s lineup features Elizabeth Warren, Barack Obama, and our next Vice President, Kamala Harris.
