Petition protested unethical voter conduct

Petition protested unethical voter conduct

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2011


First of all, let me say that Sam DeLong, who moved here from Arizona, is a good citizen who has participated in many organizations and has worked hard to make Cape Vincent a better community. We thank her for her efforts and appreciate her involvement.

I would like to give you the basis of a petition that was carried by eight to 10 people in Cape Vincent. The petition states we believe it is unethical to carry out a voter drive to manipulate the outcome of coming elections. This petition was signed by people for wind, people against wind, Democrats, Republicans, a good cross-section of our community that felt strongly that this was not the right thing to do.

If the people changed their vote for the love of Cape Vincent and want to participate in its progress, why haven’t they exercised their right to vote here, five, 10, 15, 25 years ago as many of them have been here that long or longer. Again in my opinion, it was to manipulate the outcome of the coming election to defeat wind farm development.

Ms. DeLong asked me if the Democratic Party participated in voter registration drives and quoted that I said, “no.” Not totally true. I said, “We do to the extent of making sure that new families and new voters are registered to vote.” I further stated that we discussed this at our last Democrat meeting. (We knew what was going on, 250-plus new voters), and we agreed that it was not right or ethical to attempt to stack the votes based on one issue.


I have also been accused of saying that people were unethical and immoral. In no way is this true. I felt the process was wrong, not the people carrying the petitions.

The petition that we carried had no bearing on the voter ID law that was proposed.

Also, we do not propose to deny anyone the right to vote but do want to remind new voters to check with their assessors to make sure that voting here will not affect their STAR exemption or their Homestead exemption on taxes in some states. Also keep in mind that you may have to make yourself available for jury duty. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, so let’s all work together to get through this controversy and do what is best for Cape Vincent.

We urge you to vote for experience in town government.

Harold L. Wiley

Cape Vincent