Times Union: "Peabody and supporters of the institution pushed for a recount shortly after the election. But that request wasn’t entertained until county election officials discovered that some results from a separate state referendum that had been printed on the back of the ballot could have been impacted by ovals improperly juxtaposed over text….Based on the document count and the discovery of a machine processing error, election officials originally agreed to digitally retabulate the contest before eventually opting for a manual recount.”
Comment: Kudos to this local Board of Elections for agreeing to a recount and then opting that the recount of the ballots be by hand. Under current law, they didn’t have to. They could have just run them through a different scanner that may have had the same problem with the apparently misprinted ballots. Ask your legislators to support Amy Paulin’s bill 01918 which requires audits by hand recount . Allegra Dengler
TIMES UNION
Rensselaer County Board of Elections also found different results for East Greenbush proposal, state ballot measure following countywide recount
By Tyler A. McNeil,Staff WriterUpdated Dec 9, 2025 4:40 p.m.
Certified election results following a recount show that the Stephentown Memorial Library’s proposal to increase municipal tax contributions from $95,000 to $110,000 passed 540-279. Those results were filed Monday with the state Board of Elections. Tyler A. McNeil/Times Union
STEPHENTOWN — Unofficial results after Election Day a month ago showed that Stephentown Memorial Library’s budget proposal was shot down by 89% of voters, or 528-60.
As it turns out, that count was wildly inaccurate.
Certified election results submitted by the Rensselaer County Board of Elections following a recount show that the library’s proposal — to increase municipal tax contributions from $95,000 to $110,000 — actually passed easily by a vote of 540 to 279. Those results were filed Monday with the state Board of Elections.
The certification marks the end of a shocking chapter for the rural library located less than 3 miles from the Massachusetts border. The initial results had been met with disbelief among library stakeholders.
“As I’ve said before, it’s an uncomfortable position for us to question the results of an election, but we knew that the numbers just did not make sense,” said library board President Jennifer Peabody. “So we’re glad to see that with our suspicions, there was something behind that.”
Peabody and supporters of the institution pushed for a recount shortly after the election. But that request wasn’t entertained until county election officials discovered that some results from a separate state referendum that had been printed on the back of the ballot could have been impacted by ovals improperly juxtaposed over text.
The local Board of Elections launched a countywide recount on Nov. 20.
Republican Election Commissioner Henry Zwack declined to comment on any deficiencies, noting that he is part of a bipartisan agency and his Democratic counterparts, who were subsequently contacted by the Times Union, were not present.
The Democrats didn’t comment.
While not specifying how the results had changed, Zwack acknowledged that the recount also shifted totals for a proposal to end the volunteer service program for East Greenbush’s W.F. Bruen Rescue Squad and a proposition to develop state forest land in North Elba. The East Greenbush proposal shifted from a 517-505 passage to a 2,381-2,250 defeat. The state proposal’s Rensselaer County approval tally changed modestly from 22,800-14,374 votes to 23,182-14,643.
No other results in Stephentown were affected by the recount.
The official Stephentown Memorial Library results far surpass the 240 vote-affirmation forms collected by the library in an attempt to prove underreporting after the general election. Based on the document count and the discovery of a machine processing error, election officials originally agreed to digitally retabulate the contest before eventually opting for a manual recount.
“I think it was a huge undertaking for them to do a recount of everything,” Peabody said, “but I think it was important to restore people’s faith in the integrity of the elections and that the process works.”
Albany-based public relations specialist and political strategist Libby Post, who has worked on library budget campaigns since 2005, was pleased to see the results reversed. She has rarely seen a library proposal fail and has never seen one shot down as dramatically as the initial results suggested.
Post was among a chorus of observers who assumed something was wrong from the start.
“You have to do something really stupid to piss off the voters to vote down a budget vote,” she said.
Before November, Stephentown Memorial Library hadn’t had a tax funding increase on the ballot since 2018.
Over the years, according to Peabody, it tried to circumvent raising taxes by pursuing grants and fundraising initiatives.
Ultimately, the rising cost of digital services and programming prompted library officials to bump coffers.
Had it failed, operating hours and collections would’ve likely been cut, Peabody said.
Dec 9, 2025|Updated Dec 9, 2025 4:40 p.m.
Tyler A. McNeil
STAFF WRITER
Tyler A. McNeil is a Saratoga County native who covers Rensselaer County, northeast Albany County and Waterford. He previously worked as a politics and data reporter with The Daily Gazette. You can reach him at TylerA.McNeil@TimesUnion.com.