Before the first questions were even asked by moderator James Call, controversy was already in the air after Genesee County Clerk Michael Cianfrini discussed how many of the new NYS laws will affect his office and the local area.
After Cianfrini was finished speaking, Stafford resident Beth Carr rose from her seat and proceeded to the front of the room and asked why there were no other choices for candidates but Republican candidates at the Meet the Candidates event.
Town Council members Robert Pacer, Donald Mullen and James Duyssen are all Republican/Conservatives running for re-election unopposed. Also running unopposed is Town Supervisor Robert Clement, County Clerk Michael Cianfrini, Genesee County Legislature Andrew Young, who did not attend, Town Justices Robert Penepant and Robert Mattice. Assemblyman Hawley also stopped by.
Carr also expressed to the candidates and the crowd that County Clerk Cianfrini had a biased view, especially on the topic of the Green Light Law which enables undocumented immigrants who are in NYS to obtain a NYS driver’s license.
This past June, Cianfrini said that the Genesee County Motor Vehicle Office is unable to process license applications for undocumented non- citizens at this time.
Cianfrini says the County Motor Vehicle Office employees have no training to identify foreign documents, nor can they translate them.
“We are not in a position to process undocumented workers,” says Cianfrini.
Any undocumented non-citizen showing up at the County DMV office will be referred to the state run DMV office in Syracuse, located at 4671 Onondaga Blvd.
Also of concern, says Cianfrini, is the use of a touch screen device at the County DMV office which NYS installed and is used in every transaction.
The touch screen device would give an undocumented non-citizen the opportunity to register to vote. Cianfrini says workers at the County Motor Vehicle Office have no way to monitor the touch screens during the transaction and no way to tell if a non-citizen illegally registered to vote.
He also says the County Board of Elections has no means to monitor illegal voters.
After about 40 minutes, Moderator James Call was able to ask questions of the candidates. The questions were submitted on paper by the crowd.
Does this woman EVEN know what a DEMOCRACY is? Does she even know what the DETENTION CENTER is for (in Batavia). This is not a venue where share and share alike is the…. way to go. If it were the other way around as it is in NYC….THEN …HOW.. WOULD HER THEORY GO…OF SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE? The basics of politics is… the winner …..wins.