Serving Rhinebeck and Neighboring Towns
Volume 7 | November 9, 2022
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Well, It Happened!
Quite possibly the only saving grace for the results of yesterday’s election was that it defied expectations – or was it hopes – and possibly further eroded our collective faith in polls as any sort of accurate predictor. In many cases, this was neither the election night results the Democrats gravely feared, nor the results the Republicans assumed were virtually guaranteed. But results are still coming in as of early this morning, and some are bound to be disputed, if not slotted into recount/runoff territory. It’s still a nail-biter.
On the national stage, the Republicans gained ground by winning a hard-fought Ohio Senate seat (formerly held by a Republican) with the win of author J.D. Vance (R) over Tim Ryan (D), whose campaign was closely watched as a potentially winning model. On the other hand, the Democrats surprised many with the win of Pennsylvania’s crucial Senate seat by Lt. Governor John Fetterman (D) over his opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz (R). The Senate races in Nevada and Arizona are too close to call, and the high-profile Senate race in Georgia, between incumbent Raphael Warnock (D) and famed football star Herschel Walker (R) is close enough to have gone into a runoff election.
There was a fair amount of backlash with the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade, as voters in California, Michigan and Vermont chose to affirm protections for abortion rights. Voters in Maryland and Missouri approved ballot measures to legalize recreational cannabis, but similar measures were defeated in North Dakota and Arkansas. In Iowa, voters approved a measure to enshrine gun rights for its citizens.
The HV Pilot will continue reporting on the results as they are confirmed, and please note that results are still coming in and some races may not be finalized, as ballots are still being counted in crucial races. Look for more news and analysis with this Friday’s regular Pilot newsletter.
And as always, thanks again for continuing to read and engage with the HV Pilot. If you haven’t signed up for the newsletter, please sign up. And we encourage you to keep writing to us, talking with us, and supporting us.
Thank you again.
Eric Steinman
Executive Editor
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State Results:
Kathy Hochul (D) retained her position as Governor and became New York's first elected female head of state (*but did not win Dutchess County)
Letitia James (D) held on to her position as State Attorney General
Thomas DiNapoli (D) won re-election as State Comptroller
Marc Molinaro (R) won in the 19th Congressional District beating Josh Riley (D)
Pat Ryan (D) won in the 18th Congressional District beating beating Colin Schmitt (R) (*with just over 2100 votes)
Michelle Hinchey (D) won in the State Senate's 41st District beating Sue Serino (R)
Sarahana Shrestha (D) won the District 103 Assembly Seat against Patrick Sheehan (R)
Didi Barrett (D) was reelected for the District 106 Assembly Seat beating Brandon Gaylord (R)
Voters Overwhelmingly Passed the Environmental Bond Act
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Regional and Local:
Dutchess County Sheriff Kirk Imperati (R) fended off challenger Jillian Hanlon (D) to be elected to a four-year term
Democrat Jen Metzger (D) beat Jim Quigley (R) in the race for Ulster County Executive
(*State Supreme Court Justice results have yet to be announced)
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At the Polls in Rhinebeck
by Eric Steinman
It is true that county officials and secretaries of state are charged with overseeing elections, however the ground game is largely carried out by thousands of poll workers nationwide (earning a few hundred dollars for a 15-17-hour shift, with long stretches of sitting amidst cold pizza and warm soda). These poll workers, who are well-trained in both protocol and the technology employed to ensure a safe and fair election, are also required to welcome voters, get them through the voting process correctly, and contend with any circumstances out of the norm. Because the national political climate has become so contentious, poll workers are now being trained on de-escalation techniques and ways to defuse conflicts.
This is very much the case in New York State, where 55 percent of poll workers have historically been over the age of sixty, and while many of them are seasoned poll workers with years of experience, the current threat level feels both unprecedented and unwelcome. While things at the polls in New York remained relatively calm and routine on Election Day, as well as in early voting, other areas around the country saw their threat level soar beyond anyone’s comfort level. For a good part of Election Day, Maricopa County in Arizona was plagued with voting machine glitches, which fueled all manner of conspiracy theories around vote tampering. Prior to Election Day, Reuters had documented more than a hundred violent threats faced by election workers in Arizona’s Maricopa County, including, “menacing emails and social media posts, threats to circulate personal information online and photographing employees arriving at work.”
Yesterday’s election in and around Rhinebeck was devoid of such threats or drama and the HV Pilot had the opportunity to visit the three main voting locations in Rhinebeck (Starr Library, Town Hall and Brookmeade) and spoke with three poll workers about their respective experiences working the polls and serving the community on this crucial day.
At Starr Library, we sat down with Bridget Rossi (age 26, Rhinebeck) about her first time as a poll worker. When asked about what motivated her as a first-time worker, she said, “It seemed like a really good opportunity to do something good in the community, and it is definitely a really great experience to get into the nitty gritty of your community and see the people who live here and work here.” Rossi also spoke openly about the moderate pre-election jitters she had. “The night before the election, I was watching a news program with my mother, and the program covered poll workers being targeted, and while I do not think something like that would happen here, I feel like you can’t succumb to that intimidation, or those that would like you to be frightened have already won.”
At Town Hall in the afternoon, we spoke with Marc Savino (age 67, Tivoli) who has been working at the polls since 2015 and revealed a slightly more jaundiced eye. Compared to a few years ago, when he started, Savino feels that the mood has shifted with the voter. “It is more combative now. In the last few years it seems like this country has a great big stick stuck up its ass. You can’t talk about anything with anybody, because you are going to offend somebody.”
Beyond the temperamental nature, Savino, who self-identified as a Republican, contends that the system still very much works and insists that elections are “100% safe and secure.” Despite the integrity of the system, Savino said there are still people who arrive with outsized suspicions. “Just this morning, there was a woman who came in who wanted to use her own pen, which just won’t work, because you have to use the Sharpie we provide in order for the machine to recognize it,” Savino explained. “The reason they want to use their pen, rather than ours, is because they saw on the internet somewhere some conspiracy theory that if they use our pens then when they vote for the candidate they want, their vote will disappear. I was like, Come on! This woman was so adamant about it, she contacted the Sheriff’s office and they showed up just a bit later to question us, and this happened last week during early voting as well.”
In the evening, when the Pilot visited Brookmeade, we spoke with poll worker Nancy, also a self-identified Republican (Clinton, age 67). Nancy was returning as a poll worker for the fifth time, and said that she really enjoys the social aspect of the work, and admitted as much while she sat at a table with a fellow Republican and a Democrat, enjoying a quiet moment in the early evening. When we asked Nancy her thoughts on how safe and secure the election was in her opinion, she responded, “Oh yes, we have our booklets here,” she points to manual supplied by the NYS Board of Elections, “ I feel it is totally safe and I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have total confidence.”
Total confidence seems to have been justified in Rhinebeck yesterday’s voting. We should be proud of that.
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Exit Polls: Voter Interviews
by Eric Steinman
Rhinebeck voters came out en masse this time, both on Election Day and during the early voting period (when turnout may even have been more robust than the actual Election Day numbers, depending on the day). Because Rhinebeck was the sole spot in Northern Dutchess County for early voting, the turnout was very substantial. Board of Elections workers said the Rhinebeck polling location at Town Hall served approximately 4,400 voters over 9 days of voting, only rivaled by Boardman Library in Poughkeepsie, which came in first in turnout numbers (approximately 4,800).
The HV Pilot showed up at the three main voting locations in Rhinebeck (Starr Library, Town Hall and Brookmeade) to conduct casual exit polls with voters on their way out of the polling place. We didn’t talk about politics per se, but touched on issues around the importance of voting, the issues that motivate voters, and their general feeling about the state of our collective reality.
Outside the polling place at Starr Library, which was quiet during the lunch hour, the Pilot spoke with Sharon Coughlan (Rhinecliff, age 45), who felt a patriotic duty to show up to vote, and expressed a particular motivation as a woman. When asked about issues that motivated her, Coughlan said, “I have a family, so the economy is a major concern.” She went on to say, “We are middle class so we want to be able to live our best life, pay for groceries and send my son to college one day.” When asked about her feelings about the integrity of the election, she put it in context, “I am one person who votes in a small town, so I feel very good and secure and have confidence in the system here. But I don’t live in a big city, so I don’t know what that experience is like. I feel good about our particular bubble.”
Town Hall in Rhinebeck was a little busier, with a short line forming out the door when the Pilot showed up. We spoke with a woman in her 60s who lived in the Village of Rhinebeck but wanted to remain anonymous, saying she was voting to “save democracy.” She continued, “If the Democrats don’t win, we are sunk!” She contends that “post-the 2020 election, there was so much disinformation and the Republicans have seemingly drunk the Kool-aid and I find it terrifying.” We also spoke with Mark Hopkins (Rhinebeck, age 63) who, while he also felt voting was essential, took a somewhat different tone. Hopkins said a large concern of his had to do with Covid and the state’s vaccine mandate (which was in large part discontinued in February 2022), “The vaccine mandate is on my mind.” He continued, “I feel it is an extraordinary violation of our Constitution and the rights and freedoms of our people...it is way over the line.” Hopkins lamented the state of our country. “Democracy is obviously in crisis…I am no fan of electronic voting. I like the fact that New York State still has a paper ballot, but I think it is a little too easy to tamper with electronic ballots, and has been since the election of 2000 (Bush vs. Gore). I think a physical ballot is more secure.”
In the evening, at Brookmeade, Damon (Rhinebeck, age 26) a “non-partisan” voter, felt a bit differently about he issue of paper ballots. “I feel like my vote is counted properly. I do feel we could eventually get away from paper ballots, because every human invention is prone to error, and I think electronic voting is probably more efficient.” When asked about a motivating issue that got him to the polls, Damon said, “...coming from a family that is not so well off, the state really needs a change to become more middle-class-friendly.” He went on to say, “A change with state government would be a good thing for us – start fresh. The current administration is too much related to the last administration.” Damon also expressed concern about the issue of inequality, especially how it applied to what he viewed as an unfair concentration of wealth and lack of fair taxation of the upper 1%. Another voter, voting for the first time as a 19-year-old, stopped to speak with the Pilot about his experience of voting, which he deemed “Okay.” A self-identified “apathetic” voter, he was there because he was motivated by his parents to vote, and claimed he would not have voted if they had not urged him to. He admitted that, compared to his peers, he is far less invested and enthusiastic, but contends that, aside from his apathy, he cares very much about climate change and the need to raise the minimum wage. When asked to elaborate on his core beliefs, he characterized it as “pretty liberal stuff” and stated that the state of the country was just “not good.”
These voters may or may not be “typical,” but they do indicate that Rhinebeck voters are certainly as varied in their opinions as we thought they would be.
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