Had the RCBOE determination gone unchallenged by the Stephentown Memorial Library and its supporters, these significant vote miscounts would not have been uncovered or corrected..
The Honorable Letitia James
Attorney General of the State of New York
Office of the New York State Attorney General
The Capitol
Albany, NY 12224-0341
BY EMAIL
March 9, 2026
Dear Attorney General James,
We1 write to urge your office to initiate an independent investigation into
multiple vote miscounts in the November 4, 2025 elections in Rensselaer County,
New York. As organizations committed to ensuring New York conducts free and
fair elections, we work to preserve all eligible voters’ right to cast a ballot, and to
have that ballot counted as cast to ensure that our elections reflect the will of the
voters.
The election debacle in Rensselaer County revealed important and
consequential vote count errors, (in more than one election), that would have gone
uncorrected if not for the persistence of the Stephentown Memorial Library to
press the Rensselaer County Board of Elections (RCBOE) for a recount. Further,
1 Free Speech For People is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest legal organization that works
to renew our democracy and our United States Constitution for the people. As part of our mission, we
are committed to promoting, through legal actions, secure, transparent, trustworthy and accessible
voting systems for all voters. The League of Women Voters of Rensselaer, a nonpartisan political
organization, encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase
understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and
advocacy. Common Cause NY is a member-based, non-partisan, non-profit. We work across New
York on priorities that impact our lives, like defending the right to vote, making our government
more accountable, and promoting transparency.
the RCBOE’s initial response exposed a careless and incurious resistance to even
countenance the possibility of a tally error, to investigate the unlikely election
results, or to conduct a recount. Moreover, public records requests have
subsequently revealed that, even after it realized the voting system tabulations
were inaccurate, the RCBOE apparently did not conduct its own investigation.
Instead, the RCBOE relied on the voting system vendor to determine the source of
the tabulation errors that occurred with the vendor’s own equipment, constituting
an obvious and pronounced conflict of interest. Importantly, the vendor’s
assessment included flawed and inaccurate conclusions.
For these reasons we agree that an independent investigation into the vote
count errors in Rensselaer County is necessary, and we respectfully ask you to
appoint a qualified party to conduct an independent and transparent investigation.
We expand on these points below.
Background
On November 4, 2025, Rensselaer County held its local elections. On
Election Night the Board of the Stephentown Memorial Library Board, its
stakeholders and its supporters were shocked to learn that a proposal to provide a
modest budget increase had failed 528 to 60.2 Examining the results, library
officials and a poll worker reportedly knew that something was off because the
number of voters that cast ballots in Stephentown evidently exceeded the 588 total
votes reportedly cast3 on the library budget proposal.4
The Stephentown Memorial Library president of the board of trustees
contacted the RCBOE and requested a recount. RCBOE Commissioner Henry
Zwack dismissed the request, told the press that it would be a waste of resources,
and insisted that the tabulator results reflected the will of the voters.5 On November
2 McNeil, Tyler, A. “Stephentown library asked for recount on ballot proposition that failed 528-60,”
Albany Times-Union, (Nov. 11, 2025). Available at:
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/stephentown-memorial-library-bu…
3
Initial news reports state the count was 528 to 60, but a November 10, 2025 letter from the RCBOE
claims the initial vote count was 527 to 58, for a total of 585 votes.
4
Israel, Sam, “Stephentown library budget vote passes with recount after failing on Election Day,”
WRGB, (Dec. 11, 2025). Available at: https://cbs6albany.com/news/local/stephentown-library-budgetvote-passes…
5 See supra note 2.
10, the RCBOE sent a letter to the president of the Stephentown Memorial Library
trustees adamantly defending the ballot tabulators and formally denying the request
for a recount.6 The RCBOE asserted that it had conducted a ballot audit that
included Stephentown ballots, “with the ballots being correctly tabulated.”7 The
RCBOE also insisted that “all voting machines, including the two machines at
Stephentown, successfully passed the required logic and accuracy testing.”8
The Stephentown Memorial Library persisted and organized over 200
attestations from voters that stated they voted for the budget proposal, providing
evidence that the vote count was incorrect.9
The RCBOE acquiesced and conducted a manual recount in Stephentown.10
Not only did the recount reverse the results on the library budget – with the budget
passing 540-279 – the recount also found that two other ballot questions had been
incorrectly tallied.11 The recount shifted results for a proposal to end East
Greenbush’s volunteer rescue squad service program and a proposition to develop
state forest land. The East Greenbush proposal shifted from a 517-505 passage to a
2,381-2,250 defeat.12 Had the RCBOE determination gone unchallenged by the
Stephentown Memorial Library and its supporters, these significant vote miscounts
would not have been uncovered or corrected, and the incorrect vote tallies would
have been certified.
An insufficient and flawed investigation.
According to records produced in a public records request, on November 12,
2025, RCBOE Commissioner Henry Zwack, wrote a text message to the voting
tabulator vendor, Clear Ballot, asking:
6 Available at: https://freespeechforpeople.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/boe-determin…
7
Id.
8
Id.
9 See supra note 4.
10 Dominguez, Carina, “40,000 ballots in Rensselaer County being recounted by hand,” News10, (Nov.
20, 2025). Available at: https://www.news10.com/news/40000-ballots-in-rensselaer-county-beingrec…
11 McNeil, Tyler, A. “Voting machines said Stephentown rejected the proposed library budget. A
recount said otherwise,” The Albany Times-Union. (Dec. 9, 2025). Available at:
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/stephentown-memorial-library-pr…
12 Id.
“Problem with the scanning of the Stephentown library vote. Need your help
in determining what went wrong and to correct. Thanks h”
13
Less than twenty-four hours later, a Clear Ballot representative wrote a message
back to Commissioner Zwack providing “Information about the Stephentown
issue,” in two attached documents. One document was titled “Rensco2025GEissue-explanation,”14 and the second was titled “Quick Facts about Stephentown.”15
In these documents, Clear Ballot provided an explanation that claimed
unequivocally that its product did not malfunction.
A cursory review of the vendor’s analysis reveals incorrect and
contradictory statements. For example, according to Clear Ballot’s explanation,
“[t]he issue was immediately found during the re-canvass and audit procedure and
the totals were updated.”16 This contradicts the RCBOE’s claim to the library that
the audit showed the ballots had been tallied correctly.
17 Further, the totals were
updated from the recount, not the audit.
Clear Ballot also incorrectly asserts, “[t]he proposition on the back of the
Stephentown ballot was the only contest affected by this programming error.”18
This claim is proven false by the recount which found two other ballot propositions
had also been incorrectly tallied.
Clear Ballot determined that the miscounts were caused solely by a ballot
programming error that would be detectable through pre-election testing, writing,
“[t]he test ballots provided for this election would have uncovered this issue if the
test results had been verified properly during the logic and accuracy testing of the
voting system.”
19 This conclusion is especially troubling because the RCBOE had
insisted all voting devices had passed the required logic and accuracy testing.
13 Available at: https://freespeechforpeople.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/problem-with…
14 Available at: https://freespeechforpeople.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/rensco2025ge…
15 Available at: https://freespeechforpeople.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/quick-facts-…
16 See supra note 14.
17 See supra note 6.
18 See supra note 14.
19 Id.
Neither the RCBOE nor Clear Ballot have addressed any of these
inconsistencies.
From these records, it appears that the RCBOE did not independently
investigate the vote count errors in Rensselaer and instead relied on a faulty
assessment from the voting machine vendor, despite the vendor’s conflict of
interest. The records also suggest that the vendor’s specious conclusions were not
scrutinized or verified by the RCBOE.
An independent investigation is warranted.
The deficiencies identified above demonstrate that an independent
investigation is merited. A similar case provides a relevant precedent and
illustrates the value of an independent investigation.
In an election in 2022, Monmouth County, New Jersey’s voting system
counted multiple precincts twice causing the losing candidate to be certified as the
winner. Months later the error was discovered and a recount found that the original
election results were wrong.20 In response, then-New Jersey Attorney General Matt
Platkin tapped an outside entity to conduct an independent investigation into the
errors.21 The resulting report generated a thorough explanation of the errors and a
comprehensive set of recommendations to improve election administration
processes.22
Conclusion
The response from the RCBOE has been insufficient. The RCBOE relied on
the vendor to assess the errors that occurred on the vendor’s product. Moreover,
despite the inconsistent and inaccurate conclusions, the RCBOE did not appear to
probe or question these inconsistencies. A thorough and comprehensive,
independent investigation is necessary to fully understand what went wrong, and
20 Sullivan, S.P. “Election Officials Double-Counted Votes, Declared Wrong Winner in N.J. County,
AG Probe Finds.” NJ, (Sep. 6, 2023). Available at: www.nj.com/monmouth/2023/09/lack-ofsafeguards-led-to-double-counted-vot….
21 Wildstein, David, “N.J. Attorney General to probe ES&S vote tabulation errors that caused some
’22 election results to be double counted,” New Jersey Globe, (Nov. 24, 2023). Available at:
https://newjerseyglobe.com/state-government/n-j-attorney-general-to-pro…
22 https://www.nj.gov/oag/newsreleases23/2023-0906-Monmouth-County-Investi…
what changes should be made going forward. Most importantly, an investigation
that identifies the failures that occurred in Rensselaer and offers recommendations
as to how to prevent these errors from reoccurring would serve all counties in New
York State and may prevent future miscounts.
We urge you to initiate an independent and comprehensive investigation. We
stand ready to assist you in any way. Thank you for your commitment to free and
fair elections.
Very respectfully,
Susan Greenhalgh Susan Lerner
Senior Advisor for Election Security Executive Director
Free Speech For People Common Cause/NY
Joan Rogers
President
League of Women Voters of Rensselaer County
cc. Rensselaer County Board of Elections
Commissioner Henry Zwack
Commissioner Mary Sweeney
New York State Board of Elections
Co-director Kristen Zebrowski Stavisky
Co-director Raymond Riley
