Petitions Submitted to the Monroe County Board of Elections After Lies & Misinformation from the BOE

While we submitted more than enough signatures on petitions to the Board of Elections on Thursday to be placed on the ballot in September, we could have had many more signatures if the BOE had given us correct voter information when we asked for it. They told us one of our petition workers was not a registered vote (she was) and when we asked the BOE for help in determining what party affiliation the same worker was/is, we were told "It is NOT public information what party affiliation a voter is."
...................................................................................................................
Harry L. Davis
266 Hamilton Street
Rochester, NY 14620
585-355-4259
vote4harry@gmail.com
www.HarryDavis2010.com

July 15, 2010

TO:
Monroe County Board of Elections
Rochester, NY

Dear Board of Elections:

Thank you for the opportunity to submit petitions for the office of New York State Assembly, 131str District.

I would like to explain our petitions.

The Statement of Witness portion at the bottom of approximately 30 pages of our petitions has been whited out and the name of “Tiffany Cooper” written in. Tiffany Cooper is the person responsible for these signatures.

Previously today, on the telephone, I explained to Mr. Peter Quinn the reason for this.

We began working with Ms. Cooper on approximately July 3, 2010. Ms. Cooper said she wanted to help us collect signatures and said that she was/is a registered Democrat residing in Rochester, NY. She then began to go door to door in Rochester from the voter-walking list provided by the Board. I took Ms. Cooper’s word. On Friday, July 11, I called the Board of Elections in Rochester. I asked Linda Martinez to please check the names of Tiffany Cooper and her sister, Tiara Keels to see if they were registered voters in Monroe County. Ms. Martinez said that maybe I should use the computer at the BOE but that she would check for me. Being a double amputee, both my feet are amputated, it is extremely difficult for me to travel anywhere, even though you may see me on my bicycle everywhere. I hurt all the time. Ms. Martinez told me that both Ms. Cooper and Ms. Keels were NOT registered voters in Monroe County! I informed Ms. Cooper of this. I also said I did not want her to collect any more petitions until this was resolved. She said that her sister, Ms. Keels could provide a voter mailer informing her of where & where to vote. I said OK. However, Ms. Cooper did not provide the information. I let her a voice mail late Saturday again asking for this.

On Monday, July 14, 2010, I went to the Board of Election to double check this information on the computer. I discovered that both Ms. Cooper and Ms. Keel are currently registered votes in Rochester!

I then called Mr. Tom Ferrarese and complained to him about Friday’s wrong information.

I contacted Ms. Cooper & told her she was OK to sign. She said she would be over to sign at 3PM on Tuesday, July 8 but I did not hear from her then. I later got an email from Ms. Cooper, enclosed stating that apparently there was a family problem out of Rochester, a death perhaps, and she was out of town for this week.

Since Ms. Keels was now a registered voter, I asked her to sign the petitions since they both went door to door. However, after we began signing on Wednesday, July 14, I remembered I had not actually confirmed she was a Democratic voter as she stated she was. So I went to the BOE again/ Since I have never has the necessity to use the BOE computers, I was not familiar with how to look up voter information. Asked a worked there to log me in. I did not feel very welcome at this request but I got on. Then, I had to find out how to see what party Ms. Cooper and Keels were. I was handed to a supervisor at the BOE, I don’t know her name, and this woman told me “Voter party registration information is not available to the general public!”

I was dumbfounded. I poked around the computer and did find the party registration. What I found was this:

Ms. Cooper is a registered Democrat in Monroe County.

Ms. Keel is a Blank voter in Monroe County.

Long story short, I then returned to Ms. Keels and told her the bad news.

Later that night, Wednesday, I heard from Ms. Cooper. (Emails enclosed)

On Thursday, AM, I head form Ms. Cooper that she was back in Rochester. I then whited out the name of Ms. Keel on the Witness Statements and had Ms, Cooper sign.

I hope this helps. I think we have enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. Again. all signatures were legally gathered by registered Democratic voter in Monroe County.

Sincerely,

Harry Davis