Everything you need to know to be an informed voter.

Hillside 5th graders Civics Lesson | Niskayuna Resident Leads League of Women Voters' Youth Initiative | Voters Have the Power...if They Decide to Use it | How the National LWV is Fighting for Democracy in the Courts November 2026 | Important 2026 General Election Information |Niskayuna and Rotterdam Candidate Questions |  Upcoming Candidate Forums |  October 2026 Voter Services Report | Candidate Forum Recordings | Senate District 44 Candidate Forum | Take Me To Vote | Postcards to the People | September 2026 Voter Services Report | August 2026 Voter Services Report |   New Get Out The Vote Tool |  The SAVE Act | Running for Political Office |  Voter Publications | How We Elect Our Representatives | Candidate Forum Policy | Video Recording Policy | Links to Local Boards | City Council and Town Board Meetings | Schenectady County Legislature Meetings | State-Wide Politics and Financial Disclosures

 

Hillside 5th graders Civics Lesson

Hillside principal Dr. Fasciglione looks on as Mr. Neely's 5th graders participate in a civics lesson.

It’s a mindset that rings true to Principal Shireen Fasciglione at Hillside Elementary School in Niskayuna, where the students have regularly ranked among the county’s most active in terms of going to the polls.

In the two decades since the inception of Take Me To Vote, Hillside staffers and students have become increasingly engaged with the program and the election process in general, said Fasciglione, the school’s top administrator for 25 years now.

“We have noticed an increase in participation or at least an increase in excitement on the part of the kids,” she said.
In the fall and spring election seasons, Hillside’s teachers incorporate the subject into the regular curriculum, said Fasciglione, one of the biggest boosters of the League’s Take Me To Vote effort since the start.

“I think it’s a nice opportunity to teach kids about our civic duty of voting and participating in government,” she said.

A few days before Election Day, the students are reminded to participate. It instills a sense of responsibility, Fasciglione said.

“‘Oh, I’ve been told by my teacher I should go and vote with my parents,’” she said.

In the springtime, Hillside staffers start talking about elections again, this time for the upcoming school budget vote and school board elections. Shortly before that election day, they hold their own mock election to engage the kids.

“We might vote on our favorite ice cream flavor so everybody K-5 will vote,” Fasciglione said.

The results are then tallied and a note is sent home to share the results of the students’ voting.

“We send a little notice home that says, ‘We voted today. Will you vote tomorrow?’” Fasciglione said.

Focused on the issues

“And of course we never say how parents should vote; we just encourage them to go vote,” she added.

That kind of nonpartisanship is central to the mission of public schools and also the League of Women Voters, a grassroots nonprofit dedicated to promoting participation in democracy, Connie Young said.

“The teachers as well as the League have to be so careful not to be at all partisan,” she emphasized.

Instead of partisanship, the primary focus is on the importance of democracy and why it matters to all of us, said Young, who first voted in a presidential election when she pulled the lever for Richard Nixon in 1960 in his race with John F. Kennedy.

“It is important because politicians make decisions on all parts of your life and you have the ability to at least educate yourself to choose someone who you feel is doing a good job,” she added.

But League advocates have their work cut out for them, especially when it comes to encouraging young Americans to register and vote.

While 4 million Americans turn 18 every year, fewer than 50% register to vote, according to the Civics Center, a California-based nonpartisan nonprofit that advocates for voter registration for young Americans. In New York state, an estimated 38% of 18-year-olds are registered to vote, compared with 78% of voters 45 and older – a common scenario in all states described as “the registration gap,” according to the Civics Center.

Despite this, the work goes on, advocates say, and for good reason. Young voters are a large segment of the electorate that can have a major impact on elections, according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, a non-partisan research organization based on Tufts University outside Boston.

Close to 50 million young Americans ages 18-29 are eligible to cast ballots this fall, including more than 8 million newly eligible voters since the 2024 election, according to the organization.

With such a vast pool of prospective voters, the League’s efforts to encourage young voters is well worth the effort, said Joan Fucillo, president of the Schenectady County League of Women Voters.

“The stickers and the contest element among the schools is an incentive, but the larger effect is in seeing their friends and neighbors gathered at the polls, community values in action,” Fucillo said. “Children who grow up among voters are more likely to vote and to have an interest in the wellbeing of their communities, which is essential for a healthy society.

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Niskayuna Resident Leads League of Women Voters' Youth Initiative

By Miles J. Reed, Daily Gazette Oct 2, 2026

Connie Young, center, with granddaughter Kayla Lynch, left, and daughter Catherine Emery, right.

NISKAYUNA – At 87, Connie Young is still fighting the good fight.

For four decades, Young has poured herself into voter education with the Schenectady County League of Women Voters.

She’s not done yet.

“If our country doesn’t vote, we don’t have a country,” she said matter-of-factly.

Starting this fall, Young is nudging her advocacy work into the digital age with a reboot of the League’s “Take Me To Vote” initiative for elementary school students in the county.

The program is a friendly competition between the county’s various elementary schools, intended to encourage students to go to the polls with an adult and participate in the electoral process. The schools with the greatest participation levels are recognized with plaques or certificates for their achievements.

But Take Me To Vote has languished since the COVID-19 pandemic due to limits on outsiders’ involvement in schools, especially during the heights of illness, Young said. Even with the easing of restrictions in recent years, the initiative hasn’t fully rebounded, she said.

This year, though, Young hopes to reenergize the program by using QR codes to tabulate student involvement.

At every polling place, students will be able to scan a code that produces a list of schools countywide. They just have to click on their school to be counted. No more paper slips to be stamped and placed in envelopes, all to be counted by hand later by League volunteers.

“Many people were needed,” Young said. “Now, only one.”

All systems go

The League partially rolled out the QR-code system last election, but it wasn’t fully embraced or understood, Young said. This year, she’s encouraged by the buy-in from school administrators throughout the county.

“I’ve talked to all the superintendents,” said Young, who’s been the program’s organizer since starting it in 2004. “They all seem to be very enthusiastic.”

The main thrust of the program is to familiarize young students – our future voters – with the electoral process and to inspire them to stay involved for life, said Young, a longtime resident of the Old Niskayuna neighborhood.

“With children, things they learn at an early age stick with them,” said Young, who is a mother of four, a grandmother and, most recently, a great-grandmother.

“We remember and we get excited about things that happen when we’re small,” she said. “In the teenage years, things are busy at a personal level and I think focusing on this group [elementary students] is a good thing.”
“Our idea is if children are comfortable going to polling places and [learning] how to vote for the five years that they’re in elementary school, when they get to be adults, they’ll know how to go and vote,” Young said.

Find the original article here.

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Voters Have the Power...if They Decide to Use it

Daily Gazette, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026

People running for elected office are looking for a job; people running for re-election are looking to keep their job.

But some current and would-be officials don’t treat it that way.
Serious job seekers show up on time for their interviews, present their qualifications, and are civil to the people who might hire them.

They do not claim the interviewer is biased or refuse to answer questions they don’t like. They respect everyone involved in the hiring process because they want a job.

A recent Gazette editorial, “Government Boards must put public above political, personal animosity,” described several local government meetings where elected officials “bicker[ed], call[ed] each other names and refuse[d] to cooperate with one another,” “causing government business to grind to a halt.”
In other words, these officials set aside their obligations to their constituents in favor of scoring points against each other.

This past Sunday, another Gazette editorial called out candidates for ducking debates.

Why is this allowed to happen?

The current political climate encourages confrontation over civil discussion.

Anger can be an effective tactic — it gets people excited, creates engagement. Sometimes, candidates are applauded for “pre-refusing” to cooperate with their potential co-workers.

It’s a show, but it only works if that’s what we want.

Do we?

Voters have the right to question and to get thoughtful responses from candidates for office, especially at the local level, where voters see the direct effect of local officials’ actions or inactions in office.
Are the streets safe, are the parks and libraries maintained, is the water safe to drink, do heavy rains always cause flooding?

Yet too many candidates avoid discussion of the issues (and constituents’ concerns) by hand-picking their events.

No debates. No forums. No public interactions with constituents who are not supporters. No open meetings. And no chance for voters to ask questions.

Voters: Let’s expect better from our candidates.

Again, candidates for office want a job and are asking voters to hire them. If they are hired, voters’ tax dollars will pay their salaries.

Voters do not need to know every detail of an elected official’s job to have a voice. They can open their eyes and look around. If they don’t like what they see, they can speak up. And they can vote.

When community members are engaged in local issues, the streets get plowed, the potholes get filled, the health department is properly staffed — the list goes on.

And if that doesn’t bring the results your community needs? Well, no one is entitled to elected office; and winning an election doesn’t guarantee the next one.

Local contests are often decided by just a few votes. When it comes to our communities, voting is our superpower.

Politicians count votes; voters count results.

Joan Fucillo is president of the League of Women Voters of Schenectady County.

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How the National LWV is Fighting for Democracy in the Courts

While LWV Schenectady serves voters at the local level, our national League is working mostly behind the scenes to defend and extend democracy through litigation in the courts.

LWVUS and Leagues around the country have been going to court to challenge unnecessary restrictions on voters and voting.   A recent decision has special meaning for LWV Schenectady, which has a record of supporting voter registration for new citizens.

Voter registration for new citizens at naturalization ceremonies -– Success!

On October 15, 2026, a federal district court removed a barrier to LWV and other nonpartisan civic groups reaching and engaging new citizens at naturalization ceremonies.

LWV Schenectady had actively supported new citizens' voter registration at naturalization ceremonies until August 2025, when USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) issued a rule "abruptly and without factual basis" (LWV.org) that hampered the League from registering new citizens to vote.

USCIS is a federal agency, not to be confused with the non-profit USCRI (U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants) which assists new residents who have come from other countries.

In  League of Women Voters v. USCIS, "Defending Civic Engagement Groups Against Restrictions on Voter Registration at Naturalization Ceremonies", the LWVUS and the National Council of Jewish Women, Greater New Orleans Section, were plaintiffs, represented in court by the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center.

LWV sued for violation of first amendment rights and failure to obey the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946, which "requires federal agencies to follow clearly defined and transparent procedures when adopting new policies" (LWV.org). 

The October 2026 ruling by a federal district judge permanently blocked the USCIS rule.  Thanks to this successful court case, the USCIS rule no longer prevents the League from offering voter information and registration at naturalization ceremonies, although other obstacles may remain.

This case is one of many by Leagues throughout the U.S. supporting democracy. For more information on LWV's legal activities, see the LWVUS website.

Information for this article came from the League of Women Voters of the U.S.  and from the Campaign Legal Center.

Janet Hollocher, Treasurer

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Important 2026 General Election Information

Early voting is Oct. 24 through Nov. 01, times and voting locations  here

Absentee ballot deadlines

Sample Ballots,                  Sample ballot for the Village of Delanson

Find your polling place 

Schenectady County Board of Elections  

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Niskayuna and Rotterdam Candidate Questions

The Scotia/Glenville and Schenectady Candidate Forums were recorded and are available on our YouTube Channel for viewing .

We have questions and answers for the towns of Niskayuna and Rotterdam instead of candidate forums.

Niskayuna questions and answers.

Rotterdam questions and answers.

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Upcoming Candidate Forums

Schenectady Candidate Forum, Wednesday, October 14 at 6 pm

McChesney Room, Downtown Karen Johnson Schenectady Public Library

Our scheduled forum will have 3 candidates running for one seat on the City Council.  All candidates for Schenectady City Council that will be on the ballot on November 3 have been invited. Audience members are invited to submit questions at the forum or in advance by email to lwvschenectady [at] gmail.com (), subject Schenectady Candidate Forum. Let’s hope they all show up!

Candidate Forum for NY Senate District 44, Thursday, October 22 at 7 pm, via Zoom

The League of Women Voters of Saratoga and Schenectady Counties are hosting a candidate forum for NY’s Senate District 44 on October 22nd at 7 pm via Zoom. Both candidates, Senator Jim Tedisco and Sarah Rogerson, will participate. 

The forum will address issues that are important to constituents in Senate District 44. Voters will hear directly from the candidates asking for their vote. This event is open to the public, who can register here.  Please get the word out about this event!  The League will post the recording of the forum at LWVSaratoga.org/candidates and in its voter guide at VOTE411.org.  The public is also encouraged to submit questions for candidates at: lwvscquestions [at] gmail.com (subject: NY%20Senate%2044) () no later than Monday, October 19th. Please put NY Senate 44 in the subject line.

Candidate Forum for NY Assembly District 112, Wednesday, October 21 at 7 pm, via Zoom

The League of Women Voters of Saratoga and Schenectady Counties are hosting a candidate forum for NY’s Assembly District 112 on October 21st at 7 pm via Zoom. Both candidates, Asm. Mary Beth Walsh and Mario Fantini, will participate.

The forum will address issues that are important to constituents in Assembly District 112. Voters will hear directly from the candidates asking for their vote. This event is open to the public, who can register here.

Please get the word out about this event!  The League will post the recording of the forum at LWVSaratoga.org/candidates and in its voter guide at VOTE411.org. 

The public is also encouraged to submit questions for candidates at: lwvscquestions [at] gmail.com (subject: NY%20Assembly%20112) () no later than Monday, October 19th. Please put NY Assembly 112 in the subject line.

Liz Yanoff, Voter Services-Forums    

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October 2026 Voter Services Report

Voter Registration
We had an inspiring day on National Voter Registration Day, September 15th.  We collected 22 completed voter registration forms and handed out 4 more at SUNY Schenectady and the Market 32 stores in Schenectady and Glenville.  Plus lots more voter registrations at Union College- many of the students registered online in Schenectady or their home state and Union collected completed VR forms, so we don’t have an exact number.

Many thanks to our volunteers: Inge-Lise Pangburn, Julia Holcomb, Janet Hollocher, Judy Stein, Martha Cameron, Wendy Bender, Susan Spring, Ellen Daveiro, Helen Passonno, Joan Fucillo and Nancy Tudor!

We post voter registration events on a continuing basis.  Check our voter registration signup here.   If you know of a potential venue, please contact me at lwvschenectady [at] gmail.com .

Candidate Forums
It’s been a less successful story with candidate forums this year.  In Rotterdam and Niskayuna, only 2 candidates were running for a seat as Supervisor.  In each case, one candidate said yes, the other candidate said no to our invitation.  Consequently, we had to cancel forums in both towns.

Slightly more successful was a candidate forum for Scotia/Glenville,* held on September 28.  The Republican Party in Glenville, which included Scotia candidates, declined our invitation.  Fortunately, there were multiple candidates for races in Glenville and Scotia so we were still able to hold a forum. 

Our scheduled forum is for Schenectady on Wednesday, October 14 in the McChesney Room, Karen Johnson Library at 6 pm with 3 candidates running for one seat on the City Council. Let’s hope they all show up!

It’s been disappointing that so many candidates this year decided it was not to their advantage to appear at a candidate forum.  It’s the voters who lose out when they don’t have the opportunity to question people running for elected office.

Jail Outreach
On a brighter note, we’ve made real progress in encouraging incarcerated individuals at the Schenectady County Jail to register to vote.  Recently, the NAACP reached out to us to inquire whether we could work together to go register people at the jail.

NAACP member Renee Bradley took the lead and set up an appointment for the two of us to meet with Sheriff Dominic Dagostino.  Also present at the meeting were Undersheriff Michael Brown and Superintendent Ronald Walsh.  The Sheriff was very supportive of the idea.

I gave Superintendent Walsh the State League’s brochure, “Your Right to Vote for Individuals with Criminal Convictions or Detained in Jail or Prison”.  It’s a great brochure laying out all of the circumstances when an individual is or is not eligible to vote.

Just as I was ready to order 500 copies of the brochure, Judy Middelkoop pointed out that we have a pdf version on our website  I sent the link to Superintendent Walsh and he promptly ensured that the brochure was loaded on the tablets of incarcerated individuals.  In fact, the brochure loads up every time an individual logs onto their tablet so they will now have access to the information at any time.

We’re looking forward to visiting the jail in person to talk to incarcerated individuals.      

Cheryl Nechamen, Voter Services      

                                                                                  

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Candidate Forum Recordings 

We now have a League of Women Voters of Schenectady County YouTube Channel, all LWV candidate forums are recorded and are posted as they become available. You can support LWVSC -- and potentially raise the visibility of our videos -- by interacting with us. Just below the video of the forum, you'll see some options. 

You can click:

• Subscribe to subscribe to our videos (when you open YouTube, you'll see our channel on the menu on the left, and when we publish something new, it will pop up in your suggested videos).
• Thumbs up, equivalent to a Facebook "like."
• Share, which will offer easy ways to share this video with others, like giving you a link to copy to generating a post on Facebook that you can choose to publish.

Katie Beltramo, Bulletin Editor

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LWV to Host Candidate Forum for NY Senate District 44 

The League of Women Voters of Saratoga and Schenectady Counties are hosting a candidate forum for NY’s Senate District 44 on October 22nd at 7pm via Zoom. Both candidates, Senator Jim Tedisco and Sarah Rogerson, will participate. 

The forum will address issues that are important to constituents in Senate District 44. Voters will hear directly from the candidates asking for their vote. This event is open to the public, who can register here. 

Please get the word out about this event!  The League will post the recording of the forum at LWVSaratoga.org/candidates and in its voter guide at VOTE411.org. 

The public is also encouraged to submit questions for candidates at: lwvscquestions [at] gmail.com no later than Monday, October 19th. Please put NY Senate 44 in the subject line.

Question Criteria

• Questions will be reviewed by an impartial group of League members based on relevancy to the office and topic/redundancy. 
• Questions should be clear, concise, and appropriate to the office being sought.
• Questions must be directed to all the candidates seeking the office, not just to one candidate.
• Questions should reflect the issues of greatest interest to the entire community and cover a broad range of topics.
• Questions must not include or imply personal attacks on any candidate.

Detailed information including Question Criteria and Candidate Forum Format and Guidelines can be found on the League of Women Voters of Saratoga County’s website.

To learn more about the candidates running, visit the League’s nonpartisan voter education tool, VOTE411.org. The League is proud to be nonpartisan, neither supporting nor opposing candidates or political parties at any level of government but always working on vital issues of concern to members and the public.

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Take Me To Vote

The 2026 Take Me to Vote has been accepted in all Schenectady County elementary schools and the posters for the children to click will be at all county polling places.

The League of Women Voters aims to educate the next generation of educated voters.

If you see a child at the polls on election day, point the poster to them. 

Connie Young

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Reaching Out to Voters Via Texts (VAN) and Postcards

The dates have been set for postcard parties.  We're sending postcards to Schenectady City residents who have registered to vote since January 2026. 

Thursday, September 10 at 6 pm

Postcard Writing Party at Lisa Pritchard's home. Serving some light finger foods to snack on but feel free to bring something to share. Spouses welcome! But perfume, cologne or scented lotions are not - ours is a fragrance-free house due to a serious chemical sensitivity. Please email Lisa at lwvschenectady [at] gmail.com before 4PM on September 9 to let us know you are coming.

Monday, September 21 at 4 pm

Postcard Writing Party at Joan Fucillo's home.  Joan can host 6-8 people.  Only caveat: we have a large, very friendly dog (some would say overly friendly). If you’re a dog person, you’ll have a good time. Please email Joan at  lwvschenectady [at] gmail.com before 4PM on September 20 to let us know you are coming.

Monday, October 5 at 6 pm

• Postcard Writing Party at Johanna Peterson's home. Serving some light finger foods and non-alcoholic drinks for snacking. Please email Johanna at lwvschenectady [at] gmail.com before 4:00 pm on October 4 to let me know us know you're coming. 

Also available: postcards in batches of 10 for pickup to do at your leisure.

At the last board meeting the motion to allocate $80 towards a GOTV campaign using VAN was passed.  At the next board meeting the parameters 
for the different groups that the league could text will be shared along with the text message being sent.

If you are interested in the either of these projects, please email Ellen Daviero at  lwvschenectady [at] gmail.com .

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September 2026 Voter Services Report

National Voter Registration Day is set for September 15th this year.  We plan to mark the occasion by holding voter registration events at four locations: Market 32 in Schenectady and Scotia, Union College and SUNY Schenectady.  Check out the signup sheet at LWV Voter Registration for times and locations if you’d like to volunteer.   We still have slots open for the college events.  

So far, we’ve scheduled candidate forums for Rotterdam, Community Center, on September 25th at 6:30 pm, Scotia/Glenville, Glenville Municipal Center, on September 28th at 6:30 pm and Schenectady, Central Library McChesney Room, on October 8th at 6 pm.  We’re still working on a forum for Niskayuna. 
If you know of an organization that would like us to do voter registration or if you’d like to volunteer at one of the candidate forums, please contact Cheryl at lwvschenectady [at] gmail.com () .

Cheryl Nechamen, Voter Services

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August 2026 Voter Services Report

The November elections seem like a long way off, but they sneak up on us every year!  We’ve already begun planning candidate forums, under Liz Yanoff’s leadership.

Local elections for villages and towns have moved to even-numbered years, while city and county elections will remain in odd-numbered years, but that change won’t be fully implemented until 2030.  Special elections to fill an unexpired term add another wrinkle.

We’ll be holding candidate forums for Scotia/Glenville (Glenville Town Board and Town Justice and Scotia Village Trustees), Rotterdam (Town Supervisor), Niskayuna (Town Supervisor) and Schenectady (City Council special election).

We’ll be looking for volunteers to help with the candidate forums.  It’s a good opportunity to hear the candidates running in your town, village or city.

And, of course, we will continue to do voter registration events to register voters and encourage them to vote.  Take a look at the signup sheet at Voter Registration Signup if you’d like to volunteer.  If you know of an organization that would like us to do voter registration, contact me at lwvschenectady [at] gmail.com () .

Cheryl Nechamen, Voter Services

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New Tool to Get Out the Vote

The State League has joined with NYCET(The New York Engagement Table). With this partnership we have access to VAN (Voter Activation Network) providing us with information from voting rolls.

This new tool will allow us to engage with voters to educate and strengthen our GOTV (get out the vote) efforts. It is an online database from public voting rolls. Along with our access to VAN, we have a specialist, Monica, who is working with the state league to help counties across the state to use the database. With this information we could figure out areas in our county that have lower than average voter turnout and focus activities and efforts to increase participation. So for example, we could create a nonpartisan list of voters, (party is not included in the information that we have access to) in a lower turnout district and send postcards or texts to remind them to vote or reminders about early voting, for example.

We do pay a fee for texts sent, as well as postage for postcards. I have taken the training and would love to work with other members of our league that might be interested in this project. We can make this as complicated or simple as we like, I am aiming for simple, but would love to bounce ideas off of other interested members. If you are interested, please reach out to me, Ellen Daviero at lwvschenectady [at] gmail.com 

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The SAVE Act Makes it Much Harder to Register to Vote

The SAVE Act (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility) is up before Congress. The act is based on the idea that noncitizens are voting in droves. They are not; it is illegal; and there is almost no evidence to support this.

The SAVE Act requires proof of citizenship to register, but few IDs qualify

• A valid passport qualifies because it is a government photo ID with proof of citizenship
• No passport? Need government photo ID + birth certificate
• Birth certificate doesn't match photo ID (changed name upon marriage)? Need government photo ID + birth certificate + name change document
• Only some Real IDs and military IDs qualify; tribal IDs do not

Under the SAVE Act,

• Voters must register in person at a government office
• Voters must re-register in person if they've moved
• Voters must re-register in person if they want to change their name
• Voters must re-register in person if they want to change political parties
• Many people in rural areas would have to travel long distances to register to vote
• People who rely on public transportation may find that the closest government office is a mile or more away from the nearest bus stop.
• Private individuals are allowed to challenge election workers, who could face lawsuits or criminal charges
• Upon passage, the SAVE Act would take effect immediately

Say “NO" to the SAVE Act

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Have you ever wondered how to run for political office?  

VOTER INFORMATION PUBLICATIONS:

 

FIRST VOTE:

English    Spanish

 YOUR RIGHT TO VOTE IN NEW YOUR STATE:

College Students Brochure  

Individuals with Disabilities Brochure

Homeless Individuals Brochure

Individuals with Criminal Convictions and Those Detained in Jail or Prison Brochure

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How We Elect Our Representatives

Do you know how we elect our Representatives?  Why not test your skills.

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