A new resolution proposed in the Onondaga County Legislature would seek to prevent armed federal immigration officials from accessing non-public areas at polling sites. It would also require the board of elections to put up signage around the polling sites reminding voters of their rights.
“We are in unprecedented times,” said Legislator Ellen Block, who drafted the legislation, adding that voters were nervous about who might be at polling places this year. “It can be very nerve-racking, so we’re not here to show any extra nervousness, but to reassure people that we are looking out for their best interests.”
The resolution “reaffirms” that the presence of members of three government law agencies — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, and Border Patrol — might constitute intimidation of voters, which is illegal under state and federal laws. It adds that poll workers are not obligated to invite or admit these officials into polling places, and adds that the federal agents, armed or not, cannot be within an election space with the goal of interfering with elections or intimidating voters.
Each of these things is covered by state and federal laws. Electioneering within 100 feet of the entrance of the polling place is prohibited under state law, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 made it illegal to intimidate, threaten, or coerce voters.
The resolution also requires the county to identify and distribute a protocol responding to the presence of ICE at polling places and to post know-your-rights signage at the 100-foot mark from polling sites.
Block said that she had spoken to the sheriff’s office and they were supportive.
“They cannot override federal law enforcement, but if there are concerns, they would certainly like to know about it,” Block said.
Legislators started thinking about how to protect Onondaga County voters after two federal agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement tracked down and confronted a poll worker during the primary elections, said Block.
“This luckily didn’t end in any sort of detention or bodily harm or something like that,” said Block. “But it was an intimidation – that seemed to be very clear. So I wanted to ensure that this was something that wasn’t going to happen in the general election.”
Last June, federal immigration officials confronted Paigelynne Gonyea as she worked at the polls in the downtown Central Library. They were conducting an investigation into a January social media post wherein they said she had doxxed an ICE officer, Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard reported.
When the Onondaga County Board of Elections was notified there was an ICE presence at a voting site, they weren’t sure if it was a hoax, said elections commissioner Dustin Czarny. Czarny drove to the polling site, but by the time they arrived ICE had left.
Commissioner Kevin Ryan was later able to get information about what had happened from contacts at the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security, he said.
The officers showed up first to Gonyea’s apartment. Her boyfriend told them she was working at the polls. They called her on her cellphone to find out where she was, and went to meet her at the polling place, according to Ryan. Once there, they demanded she take down the Instagram post. There were ramifications for the officers, said Ryan.
“It was wrong as a matter of law and a matter of public policy,” said Ryan. “But I think we need to be clear to the people of this community, that this was not a situation where federal agents were going to a polling place to suppress the vote, intimidate voters, anything else.”
Elections commissioners expect conversations on the topic at next week’s New York State Board of Elections conference.
Both elections commissioners said they opposed the actions that ICE had taken, but they were split on whether they believed the resolution was worthwhile.
Ryan said that there was not a practice or pattern of intimidation from federal agents, and expressed doubt that the federal government would change its actions because of an Onondaga County resolution.
He said he did not oppose the law, but hoped that if the county was going to require signage, he hoped there would be funding for that.
“We could not have dreamed of this scenario before it happened,” said Czarny, referring to ICE at the primaries, “and we don’t know what the next scenarios are going to be.” Czarny said that the number one question in elections inspector classes was related to the presence of ICE at the polls.
Legislator Richard McCarron, a former deputy sheriff of 20 years, said that he was “personally insulted” by the suggestion that people might forget things when approached by a law enforcement officer. However, he said he might be more willing to support the resolution if it just asked elections commissioners to put up know-your-rights signage.
McCarron said he was concerned that the resolution furthered a narrative, which he called false, that people were afraid to go to the polls because of an immigration presence.
“I think that this memorializing resolution is the smoke coming off a bonfire surrounded by mirrors to create a narrative that absolutely does not exist in this circumstance,” McCarron said.
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