Olean Star

LITTLE VALLEY — A Randolph man has filed a complaint in federal court seeking data from the Cattaraugus County Board of Elections on the November 2022 election.

Randy Barber, a self-appointed election auditor, spoke to  members of the Cattaraugus County Legislature’s County Operations and Public Safety Committee Wednesday to explain his concerns over the county’s electronic voting system.

Barber filed a Freedom of Information (FOIL) request for copies of the county’s cast vote record in October, but was denied by County Clerk Darrell Klute. County Administrator Jack Searles denied a subsequent appeal of the decision. Barber is seeking a declaratory judgement against the county to force it to provide the cast vote data.

Barber said that Election Commissioners Kevin Burleson and Cortney Spittler were working with him to answer his questions, but state Election Law recognizes the commissioners’ certification of the vote as the cast vote report. 

That is in conflict with federal law, Barber maintained. “The state law is in error.”

Barber, who also challenged the Board of Elections to produce the 2020 cast vote, told the committee “I would like to express our ongoing desire to work with our elected representatives in a non adversarial manner. Many of you know I’ve been around for a while, been working on these things and trying to work with people for a long time.”

Barber said he is a member of some state and national groups, but that he is seeking to audit the 2022 Cattaraugus County vote on his own. Two of the groups are New York Citizens Audit and United Sovereign Americans.

He told the Olean Star later that he and other election auditors “will ask for the cast vote records for 2024 at some point.” 

Burleson, the Cattaraugus County Democratic Election Commissioner, said Thursday the data Barber and other election auditors are seeking from election officials across the state could tie ballots to specific voters based on date and time stamps. This could compromise the secret ballot and make people suspicious, he added.

Burleson said he does not believe the county’s Dominion 

voting equipment and software is capable of producing the actual cast vote record.

“The voting system is highly trustworthy,” Burleson said. “We explained it to him (Barber). We met with him for about 2 ½ hours one day.”

The county’s voting machines are not connected to the internet. They are programmed by state board certified technicians, Burtleson said. “Everything is double checked.”

Burleson said in New York state, a randomly drawn amount of ballots “are audited by the Board of Elections staff before an election. We use other software to verify the results. Our results are 100% spot on. The public needs to be able to trust the results of bi-partisan Board of Elections from across the state.”

Burleson said the number of FOILs the Board of Elections received has grown in the past few years. “The state Board of Elections has given us guidance” in replying to the requests.

When Donald Trump wins on Tuesday it will be for many reasons, but it will be the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation that put him over the top.    

This story begins seven and a half years ago when Chemung County resident, Mark Longo rescued an orphaned squirrel and named it Peanut.   Peanut lived indoors at the Longo’s home and became the world’s most famous squirrel, amassing over half a million followers on Instagram.   His videos entertained millions, and Peanut became the cornerstone of Longo’s non-profit animal rescue, “P’Nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary.”

Then last week, acting on the tip of now notorious Karen, Monica Keasler, the New York State DEC obtained a search warrant and raided Longo’s home and animal sanctuary with 10 to 12 armed DEC officers.   After five hours of ransacking Longo’s home, the DEC officers located Peanut the Squirrel and Fred the Raccoon.   After locating the animals, the DEC killed the animals.  

That’s right, a dozen armed officers from a New York State agency called the Department of Environmental Conservation raided an animal sanctuary south of Elmira, New York about 80 miles east of here, then executed two rescue animals.   

Was the search warrant legal: Probably.   Is it legal to keep wild animals in New York: No.  Should it be legal to keep a pet squirrel:  Probably.   Was this a reasonable exercise of police power:  No.  

The bottom line is there are two dozen homeless people in Olean tonight and the State of New York wasted tens of thousands of our tax dollars to locate and kill a pet squirrel and a pet raccoon.   There are hungry children in New York State and earlier this year the State spent millions to prosecute Donald Trump for charges almost no one cared about and that will likely be dismissed on appeal for because they were filed after the statute of limitations had run.   

The DEC’s raid and execution of Peanut exemplifies the governmental overreach, waste and stupidity that will elect Trump on Tuesday.    To be fair, Kamala Harris had nothing to do with Peanut and Fred; but she was Border Czar when millions of Venezuelans poured over our southern border from 2021-2023.  She was appointed Border Czar in March of 2021 and did not bother to visit the southern border until 2024.  

Fair or not, voters see a government that will send a swat team on a tip to a neutralize a squirrel but cannot find the time to arrange a flight for the Vice-President to El Paso, when she has her own plane.  

Meanwhile, the Harris campaign is running an ad in Michigan calling for an end the war in Gaza.   At the same time, she is running an ad in Pennsylvania backing Israel’s absolute right to defend itself.    The pandering is so blatant it makes Hillary blush, even with her purse full of hot sauce.

Then last week Trump goes on Joe Rogen and he was normal.   JD Vance went on this week and he was even more normal.   Kamala Harris refused to travel to Austin to do the podcast.    She missed an opportunity to have a an off teleprompter, genuine conversation about herself and her plans for the country. 

The reality is not a single democratic voter pulled the lever for Kamala in a primary.Illegal immigrants may or may not be eating dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio. Kamala exaggerated her resume to include a brief stint at McDonald’s. The normally-congenial Joe Biden referred to hundreds of millions of Americans as human garbage in a confused ramble.

There are plenty of reasons to vote against either candidate; but, when Elon Musk declared, “Government overreach kidnapped an orphan squirrel and executed him”, he was not wrong.   

This year, it will be the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation that causes thousands of swing state voters to pull the lever for Trump and “for Peanut.”