Election Commissioners To Speak on the Voting Process

COOPERSTOWN—The League of Women Voters of the Cooperstown Area will hold “An Evening in Defense of Democracy” on Wednesday, September 10 at 6 p.m. in the Cooperstown Village Hall, 22 Main Street. The program will begin with a timely topic: the security of our votes. Otsego County Election Commissioners Michael Henrici and Lori Lehenbauer will describe how registration, voting, and ballot counting are carried out by Otsego County’s Board of Elections. The commissioners’ talk will explain how the Board of Elections staff work to assure that every vote is properly cast and accurately counted.

“In conversations with other Leagues throughout the state, we realized that Otsego County is, indeed, fortunate,” noted LWVCA Co-president Christina Bourgeois. “Our election commissioners have always been forthcoming and helpful as we carry out our work and we have learned much over the years working with them. We are so pleased that our election commissioners agreed to explain how this important work is accomplished.”

After the commissioners speak, LWVCA will announce its fall program. According to a press release, in April 2025, the League of Women Voters of the United States declared that our country was in a constitutional crisis and responded to their concern with a new nationwide campaign—“Unite & Rise 8.5.” This year the Cooperstown League’s local work will focus on three aspects of Unite & Rise: public mobilization and coalition building, civic education and engagement, and democracy resilience, officials said.

“Many groups in our community are concerned about current actions of the federal government as some of those actions affect these groups’ ability to help others in our community and protect our local environment,” explained LWVCA Co-president Hudi Podolsky. “Unite and Rise is the League’s effort to help our community speak up and strengthen our democracy. We are pleased that several community organizations decided to co-sponsor this event. The September 10 program will be the shared invitation to our local community for greater civic education and engagement.”

To date, the Community Foundation of Otsego County, Connections at Clark Sports Center, the Cooperstown Food Pantry, the Oneonta Area NAACP, and Otsego 2000 have agreed to be co-sponsors of the initiative.
“An Evening in Defense of Democracy” is free and open to the public.