Over the past several months this blog has reported on the failure of the Erie County Board of Elections (BOE) to do its job in reporting on the apportionment of voter registrations as they apply to the eleven districts of the Erie County Legislature.  The Board has also failed to certify the results of the June primaries that included some contests in legislative districts.

It should be noted that while the Board is by law a bi-partisan public agency headed by both Democratic and Republican Commissioners, the failure to do what it is legally required to do in the current instance rests solely with the Republican Commissioner, Ralph Mohr, who has been at the Board for decades. Two courts now, including the State Supreme Court on Tuesday, disagree with his decisions.

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I’m dating myself and perhaps some of this blog’s readers here:  do you remember Edger Bergen?  He was a 20^th century ventriloquist, actor, comedian, vaudevillian and radio performer.  He is best remembered as the creator of Charlie McCarthy, a wooden dummy who mostly spoke nonsense which many people found very funny.  Charlie McCarthy was created by Bergen, using a nine-inch length of broomstick for the backbone and rubber bands and cords to control the lower jaw mechanism of the mouth.

Kevin McCarthy is a member of the House of Representatives who is in his ninth term. He served in various roles in House Republican leadership since 2009 and was elected Speaker of the House in January 2023 following the longest proceeding for the selection of a Speaker (15 rounds of voting) in more than one hundred years.

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