voting Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

National Library Week 2026: Find Your Joy

APL survey

Since it’s National Library Week 2026, I am required by my vows as a Master of Library Science to celebrate. Find your joy!

ITEM: Albany city residents go to the polls on Tuesday, May 19, to vote on the library’s 2026-2027 operating budget tax levy. Voters will also elect three new library trustees. Note that the poll locations may vary from the primary and general election locations.

ITEM: Albany Public Library is currently developing a Strategic Plan with the help of Library Strategies to guide its priorities over the next three years. In order to craft this long-range roadmap, the Library must determine what residents need, want, and expect from their libraries – now and into the future. For that reason, this survey was developed to collect your valuable input.

On average, it takes just 8-10 minutes to complete the survey. The information you provide will help the Library and its consultants scope and prioritize areas of focus that maximize the Library’s return on investment. You will remain anonymous unless you actively choose to self-identify.

ALA

ITEM: From the American Library Association-

This month, ALA prevailed in our lawsuit against the government to protect the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The settlement, alongside our co-plaintiff AFSCME and represented by Democracy Forward, ensures that the only federal agency dedicated to library services will continue to carry out its critical work.

ALA has been showing up for libraries on fronts beyond the IMLS lawsuit and Fund Libraries campaign:

In defense of the federal E-Rate program from new legal threats, ALA filed an amicus brief to preserve broadband funding for libraries.

A bill was introduced to protect these passport services in all libraries, which ALA worked quickly to support.

ALA denounced the federal book-banning bill, House Bill 7661, upon its introduction. It uses broad, confusing language about “sexually oriented” material that targets the LGBTQIA+ community and takes the power to choose what kids read away from their parents.

NYSWI

ITEM: Join New York State Writers Institute on Wednesday, April 22, at 4:30 p.m. at Page Hall, UAlbany for a conversation with Heidi Boghosian, lawyer, podcast host, writer, and surveillance and privacy expert, and the author of Cyber Citizens: Saving Democracy with Digital Literacy (2025), which argues that our best chance of thriving in the digital era lies in taking care of our “smart” selves as diligently as we maintain our “smart” devices.

She will also discuss the looming challenges to democracy posed by AI and other emerging technologies.

Boghosian is executive director of the A.J. Muste Foundation for Peace and Justice, a charitable organization providing support to activist organizations, and the former executive director of the National Lawyers Guild.

FFAPL

ITEM: The Friends of Albany Public Library and, later, the Friends and Foundation of Albany Public Library, have sponsored free Tuesday Book Talks almost every week of the year at the Washington Avenue branch at 2 pm.

April 21 | Book Review | The Big One: How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics by Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, & Mark Olshaker. Reviewer: Bryon Backenson, Director, Bureau of Communicable Disease Control, NYS Dept. of Health.

April 28 | Author Talk | David Ricci, from the Berkshires, discusses & reads from his book of photographs, Hunter Gatherer: Salvaged Stories of American Culture, with text by Cheryl Finley.

May 5 | Author Talk | Jessica Treadway, Albany native & child patron of the Pine Hills Branch, discusses & reads from her short story collection, I Felt My Life with Both My Hands.

May 12 | Book Review | The World’s Strongest Librarian: A Book Lover’s Adventures by Josh Hanagarne. Reviewer: John Edvalson, APL librarian.

May 19| Book Review | The Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology by Chris Miller. Reviewer: Charles Hailer, Empire State Fellow with the NYS Urban Development Corporation.

May 26 | Book Review | The Fear and the Fury: Bernie Goetz, the Reagan ‘80s, and the Rebirth of White Rage by Heather Ann Thompson. Reviewer: James Collins, PhD, Prof. emeritus, Anthropology Dept, Program in Linguistics & Cognitive Science, U at Albany, SUNY.

Photos

ITEM: Locally, the show of FFAPL treasurer David Brickman, Neighborhood Abstracts, has been extended through mid-May at McGreevy ProLab and ProPress in Albany (link here for hours and address).

And David and McGreevy are producing a 30-page book of the show, with all the pictures and a little bit of text. The book will be available in two sizes: 8″x8″ signed, limited-edition softcover ($35, tax included, shipping extra if needed; limited to 40 numbered copies plus 10 artist proofs); and deluxe 12″x12″ hardcover ($100 plus tax and shipping if needed). Write to David: dbgetvisual[at]gmail[dot]com

Call Your House Rep: no on SAVE Act, yes on USPS

NO on H.R. 22, YES on H.Res.70

voting.woman For the past few weeks, I have received these wonderful missives from Bethlehem Indivisible labeled Today’s Actions. As a citizen who’s lived long enough to know voter suppression when I see it, the first item is particularly meaningful to me.

Here’s a list of members of Congress.

Hi, I’m a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is _______.

I am calling to urge the Congressmember to vote NO on H.R. 22, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act. The SAVE Act isn’t about safeguarding elections — it’s about silencing voters. That’s wrong, and I expect my representative to oppose it.

Also, I’m really concerned about Trump’s plans to privatize the United States Postal Service. I want the Congressmember to support H.Res.70, which directs Congress to take all appropriate measures to ensure that the USPS remains independent and is not subject to privatization. Thanks. [H/T Save the Post Office Coalition]

Lydster: the election

“You may need to grieve or scream”

My daughter texted me around 11:00 PM the evening of the election (November 5th) and asked me many questions about how the electoral process works regarding voter estimates. She wondered what would happen, and I said I had no clue. It was true, very true. The next morning around 6:30, she called on the landline, and she was upset. I was asleep, but her mother talked to her and made her feel better.

I know that she recognizes that some of her friends were feeling even worse than she was. They believe, not without cause, that the election results endangered their lives.

But her whole generation feels in peril because it seemed at the time, and even more so now, that the incoming administration will not be terribly responsive to climate change issues; a bit of an understatement, I suppose.

I’m unsure I found the right words for her because I’m still trying to find the correct words for myself. I muddle through, though it feels like walking through pea soup.

Rebecca Solnit

If I get a do-over, I will probably share these words with Rebecca Solnit. “They want you to feel powerless and to surrender and to let them trample everything, and you are not going to let them. You are not giving up, and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything, and everything we can save is worth saving.

“You may need to grieve or scream or take time off, but you have a role no matter what, and right now good friends and good principles are worth gathering in. Remember what you love. Remember what loves you. Remember in this tide of hate what love is. The pain you feel is because of what you love.

“The Wobblies used to say, ‘Don’t mourn, organize,’ but you can do both at once, and you don’t have to organize right away in this moment of furious mourning. You can be heartbroken or furious or both at once; you can scream in your car or on a cliff; you can also get up tomorrow and water the flowerpots, call someone who’s upset, and check your equipment for going onward.

“A lot of us are going to come under direct attack, and a lot of us are going to resist by building solidarity and sanctuary. Gather up your resources, the metaphysical ones that are heart and soul and care, as well as the practical ones.”

Yeah, I probably should have said something like that. Or what Kellie Carter Jackson wrote to her kids: “I prepared my children for a Harris win. I did not prepare them for her loss.”

I may never vote on Election Day again

early voting

Surprisingly, I’ve discovered I may never vote on Election Day again. For the longest time, I had identified myself as the person who would roll out of bed on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November around 5:30 a.m., throw on some clothes, and be the first or second person in line to vote at 6 a.m.

For the longest time, I couldn’t vote in the morning on primary days in New York because the state had this stupid law: Only the people who lived in New York City, the immediate suburbs, and Erie County (Buffalo metro) could vote at 6:00 a.m. The rest of us could only vote from noon to 9:00 p.m., which I thought was discriminatory against upstaters. However, they fixed that flaw a few years ago, thank goodness.

There are many opportunities to vote before the Primary and Election Day. The polls in New York State open two Saturdays before Election Day and run for nine days from that Saturday to the Sunday before Election Day. The polls are closed on that Monday, but then, of course, Election Day is open.

According to the State Board of Elections, New York State is on pace to surpass the number of early voters in the 2020 election. So, I get a tad cranky when folks complain about the long lines. They have NINE days of early voting PLUS Election Day.

I started voting by mail during COVID-19. The early morning Election Day thing that used to self-define is gone. This year, I voted early on Tuesday between 3:00 and 4:00 PM at the Board of Elections in downtown Albany, which used to be the DMV.

I got nothing if you’re looking for last-minute suggestions to tell your friends how to vote. Heck, the Weekly Sift guy is just doing referrals. But watch John Oliver anyway.

Swing time

I feel bad for all of you in the so-called swing states—Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan—because you must be inundated with presidential ads. We get almost nothing here except some ads on national programs.

Most are for a few congressional seats south of Albany, but the Albany media market reaches them. Fortunately, I recorded most of the television I watch, so I can fast forward through all of them, most of which were produced not by the campaigns but by the party congressional committees. They look, for the most part, built to scare people, and I’m not that interested. It’s not that I don’t care; the New York congressional races may determine whether the Democrats have control of the House of Representatives. So it’s not that they’re unimportant, but it’s not enough for me to watch them.

On Sunday, the Los Angeles Times noted this about djt: His “increasingly dark vision of America is less of unity and promise than of suspicion and grievance directed at those who cross him.

“Librarians are harassed, teachers vilified, election workers threatened. Immigrants are demonized, and armed groups march outside state capitols. Even meteorologists are targeted in conspiracy theories.”

I increasingly feel it’s my duty and obligation to become an election worker, if not in 2025, then in 2026. I’ve done it twice before, most recently in 2021. Sometimes, you have to face the beast.

Listen to I Bought Myself A Politician – MonaLisa Twins

Lydster: absentee ballot

The daughter called home earlier this month to ask about her absentee ballot, which she received at college after I gave her advice on securing it; she had to contact the county board of elections website.

She wanted to know why certain candidates are on more than one political party line. For instance, the Democratic candidate is also often listed on the Working Families line. This is likewise true of the Republican and Conservative lines.

It’s because, as the political science major knows, New York State allows candidates to be endorsed by more than one party or cross-endorsement. She wondered whether it made any difference in terms of the vote counting; I said no. So she asked what the significance was, and I said it had to do with ballot position and whether the minor parties remain official parties.

I only suggested one specific candidate. For reasons I mentioned here, I recommended Jaime Czajka over Jasper Mills in the family court judge race. Curiously, when we get political mail, and we got a lot during primary season, one piece has my wife’s name, and another, my daughter’s and mine.

My daughter was watching a television program recently that mentioned George W. Bush and how he was perceived; I’m a history person. Also, she knew I was the expert on games. She asked me about Monopoly for a project she was working on. I taught her how to play poker, Sorry, and much more. While I know little about current popular culture, I muddle through.

Her mom

On the other hand, she talks with her mother about paying for college, clothes, recipes, driving, medical issues, and banking—you know, the more concrete tasks. Interestingly, my daughter aided her mother in the summer with her workout at the YMCA.

I am involved with a few of these aspects. My daughter’s credit card is a spinoff of mine. Her health insurance comes from my former employer. I went with her when she applied for her passport.

Our daughter knows which specialist to ask when she has a query: the teacher or the librarian.