Members in Attendance (14):  Jim Leyhane, Roberto Martinez, Pat Bailey, Murray Forth, Ray Hannan, Peter Brown, Debbie Brown, Andy Leyhane, Phil Kellerman, Carol Heaney, Debbie Rodriguez, Dick Drumm, Charlie Foote and Kevin Leyhane.

By Zoom (2): Ruth Russell, Becky Raymond

Guests (1): Dr. Chris Bystroff

President Roberto Martinez called the meeting to order.

Theme for the year: Grow membership, do good in the world, leverage social capital, & have fun!

Meeting Notes:

Website Updates: Notify Kevin Leyhane if there are any changes for the website.

Grant Update: Edith Kanara of the Rotary Club of Enkare Naroch, Kenya put together the financial and demographic packages. Jennifer Grymm of the Rotary Club in Kenya will get back to Peter Brown tomorrow.

East Greenbush and Social Capital: The Club is proposing a cornhole tournament to raise funds for a school project. Peter Brown, Roberto Martinez, Terry Brewer, Jim Leyhane and Ron Annis met with Jeff Simon, Superintendent for the East Greenbush School District regarding a potential project. Mr. Simon proposed funding a community center for integration in the School District. Lisa Jackson will come to speak to the Club about holding a tournament. Mr. Simon also proposed moving the Star of Hope to Columbia High. The memorial for families of students who died prior to graduation is currently located between the WMCA and the East Greenbush Library.

Tax Status: Per Phil Kellerman, the accountant is finalizing the numbers and hopes to have it done next week.

Member Dues: According to Murray Forth, there are 2 outstanding.

Viking Gym: The Grand Opening was Saturday 9/14/24 at 1 pm at the Schodack Town Park. Kiwanis and Top Form, Rotary and Charles Peter, Schodack Town Supervisor, along with other Town employees were present. Murray Forth will deliver the sign to the Town next week.

Rotary Leadership Institute ( rlinea.org ): The next training is in Verona, NY on 9/28.24. Per Roberto Martinez, the Club will pay the $75 fee for any member who wants to attend.

Membership: Membership is ongoing. An application was sent to a potential new member. Jim Leyhane will look into Rotary shirts for new members.

Speakers: Needed for this year. Contact Phil Kellerman with any speakers.

World Polio Day: It is on October 24th. Roberto Martinez will check with John Justino at the School of Public Health. John is not available until Monday. Per Jim Leyhane, Rotary will focus on clean water availability for all in the future.

Benefit Concert: Phil Kellerman has a local and a band from Florida. He is looking for a venue. Roberto Martinez with check with a local church regarding availability.

Cafe Capriccio: Andy Leyhane and Jim Leyhane are contacting the Cafe regarding a fundraiser.

CNY Town Hall: The next meeting will be on Monday, September 30th, at 7 pm. The upcoming Legacy Brunch on November 17th and World Polio Day will be discussed. Join the Zoom meeting at https://zoom.us/j/99518062782?pwd=xbrK6gziSOBkdaaHMLj5BQsF2PruXA.1#success.

Rotary Presidential Peace Conference: To be held February 20-22, 2025 at the Hilton Istanbul Bomonti Hotel and Conference Center in Istanbul, Turkey. Register at rotery.org/istanbul25.

Next Meeting: Thursday, October 3rd at 6:00 pm at Moscatiello’s Italian Family Restaurant, Route 4, North Greenbush. Also, you can join by Zoom using the link on the websites calendar page.

Entry Choices will be Chicken Caesar Salid, Chicken Marsala and Penne Vodka.

Dr. Bystroff is a Professor of Biology at RPI. He has been looking at election polls and noted recent “weird” election results. Post election polls are accurate within one percent but that has not been the case in recent elections. Estimates can be made on how accurate polls are using a random sample distribution looking at the margin of error between the State tally and the election polls. Exit polls are done by phone. They usually get 700 to 800 responses out of thousands of contacts.

When you vote, your ballot is scanned into the voting machine from which a poll tape is printed out at the end of the night and submitted to the Board of Elections. The ballots go into a ballot bag and are sealed.

Can an election be stolen? Ballot stuffing uses pre-marked ballots that are added to the ballot bag. However, this is unlikely because there are watchers at the polling place. Voting machine software manipulation can occur at the factory or by hacking into machines at a later time. Voting machine manufactures, citing intellectual property, keep the software secret. This issue can be solved by auditing the votes by comparing the ballots to the poll tapes. He has looked at election results and found that these numbers do not agree. The results were certified even though there were discrepancies probably because it was felt that the discrepancy did not affect the election outcome and to minimize work.

The League of Women Voters has conducted research into audits and has come up with a set of recommendations. However, New York certifies elections immediately. Only three percent of voting machines are audited by the same people who conducted the election fifteen days after the election using machines. There is no statute in New York for making audit results public. Dr. Bystroff recommends public audits by a post-election task force to be done manually.