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Assemblywoman Galef Is a True Public Servant
To the Editor:
I can speak from personal experience about how fortunate we are to have Sandy Galef as our State Assemblywoman. She is a true public servant.
A few years ago, I was part of a small group of citizens who met with Assemblywoman Galef to discuss our concern that New York State was about to make a major mistake - the State was poised to adopt touch screen electronic voting to replace our lever machines. I had never "lobbied" an elected official before in my life and had never met Sandy before this meeting. I expected a hearing for 15-20 minutes, and then a polite brush off.
Instead, Sandy and her legislative aide met with us for over 2 hours, asked many questions, and by the end of the meeting Sandy was planning legislation - which she eventually sponsored in the Assembly - to mandate paper ballots counted on optical scanners. The important thing is that Sandy didn't stop at proposing the legislation. She became a vocal advocate of paper ballots - in Albany as well as in our District - to make sure the public and the Board of Elections understood the important issues involved in our choice of voting method.
The most remarkable thing was that at the time Assemblywoman Galef walked into our meeting, she was inclined to believe that touch screen electronic voting was the best choice. She actually listened to and learned from her constituents!
So I experienced something that the more cynical among us say can't happen - an elected official who cares enough about doing the right thing that she was able to change her position when convinced that her prior position was not in the best interests of her constituents.
Sandy's legislation was not enacted - only because the roadblock State Senate refused to even take up the bill. But her advocacy and hard work on this issue was a major reason why, beginning with the 2009 election, we will be voting on paper ballots and not on touch screen voting machines.
Sandy is there for us and she believes that government should work for the people. She is exactly the sort of person we want to keep in office.
Margaret Yonco-Haines
Garrison
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