>> From WXXI News.

This is Connections@wxxi.org Evan Dawson.

>> Our connection this hour was made last month on election night when the voting was done and everyone of course wants to know who won.

In our region, there were several races that were still close to close to know who won on election night.

One race saw a margin of one vote in the western part of Monroe County.

Marvin Stepherson was trying to win a seat in the county legislature for the first time in a number of races.

Stephansson held the lead on election night.

The margin was 11 votes.

Then when the absentees came in, the final counting was done.

He had won by just 24 votes out of more than 5000 cast out in Webster, a Democrat was trying to win the town supervisor seat in a place that has been very friendly to Republicans in the last few decades.

Alex Sheldon had the lead on election night of just seven votes after absentees and all of the recounting.

He had indeed won election by 65 votes from more than 11,000 votes cast.

And in Canandaigua, the election night margin in the supervisor's race was one vote.

Interestingly enough, the Republican had 1808, the Democrat 1807, and there was one write in vote.

Can you imagine going to write in a name, maybe as a joke, and it ends up being the margin of victory when the final counting was done, the Democrat Don Potter had won by only 12 votes.

So when you hear that, every vote counts.

My guest today are the evidence of that.

They're here to discuss not only their razor thin wins, but what it might signal to disaffected voters or people who don't vote at all.

And what they were hearing on the campaign trail.

So welcome as we go around the table to Don Cotter, supervisor elect of the town of Canandaigua.

Thanks for being here.

>> Well, thanks for having me, Evan.

>> Across the table, Marvin Stepherson Monroe County legislator elect.

You did it.

>> Hey, how.

>> Many how many races have you run for the seat now?

>> This was the fourth.

>> This was the fourth one.

Yep.

And you have done it.

So welcome back to the program, Marv.

Alex Sheldon, supervisor elect of the town of Webster.

Welcome to you.

Thank you for being here.

>> Thank you for having me.

>> So all three of you have, you know, similar stories in some ways different in others.

I got to start with the one vote margin, because on election night, I got to be I wanted to know Don Cotter, who was the write in vote in your town.

You don't know?

>> Yeah.

We don't know who the write in vote was, but it's really interesting, Evan, because my son moved home right before election.

And so we kind of scrambled to make sure that he could get registered to vote.

And so and then he was actually on a vacation in Japan.

He called me on election night, and he says, dad, how's it going?

I said, I'm down by one vote.

I said, imagine if you had not been able to vote and you were the reason why I lost the election.

>> So but he did get his vote.

>> He did get his vote in.

>> Okay.

And so on election night.

Well, this is interesting to me because in Canandaigua you have a registration disadvantage as as a Democrat, correct?

>> That's correct.

Roughly rough numbers, about 40% Republican, about 30% independent and about 30% registered Democrats.

>> And so when you've got absentees coming or when you've got a recount to come and it's a one vote margin, but you don't have the registration advantage.

I don't know what you were expecting.

Did you think that you were going to win when all the votes were counted?

>> You know, you never know until it's done.

Right.

But I did think the reason why I was confident that I was going to win is they actually break down the numbers for you.

you know, you don't get to know how people voted, but after the election, you get to see, you know, who voted by party and by mail in, by absentee, by affidavits, by day of voting and all the early votes that had come in favored us 2 to 1.

And so as long as the mail ins that still had to be counted, and as long as the affidavits that still had to be counted followed that same 2 to 1 margin, which is actually what happened then that would push me to my whopping 12 vote victory.

12 votes.

>> What is it like to be there, sitting there on election night realizing, oh, my gosh, I'm about to become a civics lesson?

>> Yeah, exactly.

It was kind of interesting because the first time I've ever run for office, I've always been in the, in the business world.

And then my wife and I and my family have been involved in community service kind of things, but never run for office.

So the whole experience has been new to me.

And so sitting there down by one vote, people I knew it was going to go to a recount.

I knew people had told me that if it's less than 20, it goes to a mandatory recount, let alone with the votes coming in.

And so the example I've been giving to people is people are like, are you nervous?

Are you worried?

I said, it's like when I get on an airplane, I'm not flying the airplane.

At that point, somebody else is flying the airplane.

So I'm not nervous at that point.

Once the campaign is over, I'm no longer running anything.

So, you know, I had faith in the system.

Fortunately, within the Ontario county, very structured systematic.

That's one reasons why it took a month, because they had to wait the eight days for the mail ins to come in.

They had to wait and then put them through.

At that point, I was up by 14.

They had to wait another week or two in order to get international.

>> Everybody's calling.

You going like, do you know yet?

>> Oh, everybody's congratulating me.

And I'm like, thank you.

But there's an asterisk.

Don't congratulate me yet.

>> So but the system worked.

I mean, not not just because you won, but because it was thorough and it was correct.

>> That's correct.

>> Well, across the table, Marvin Stepherson four different campaigns for the county legislature.

and I think that you had a feeling that it could be close this time around, right?

>> Oh, yeah.

Right from the beginning.

>> Okay.

Why?

So what's the registration look like for the Democrat in the western part of the county?

Where where you were campaigning.

>> So I don't have the specific numbers.

I had them, but, you know, my mind is.

>> It's after the election.

>> I just knew that, you know, from the first to this fourth election run, we were always in the majority.

The Democrats were.

Yeah.

It's just the voting practices weren't, you know, they don't produce that.

You wouldn't see that most people from the outside looking in were like, you know, it's a tough district.

You know, you guys seem to be outnumbered because each time a.

>> Republican wins.

>> Right?

But it's just it was just a matter of motivating folk and letting them know that we actually are the majority.

It's just a matter of people showing up.

And so the fourth run we started out, I think, around August, you know, when everybody was getting ramped up to go out in September.

We had already been out 4 or 5 weeks canvasing at the doors because we wanted to make sure that we hit areas that we had not hit before.

and I knew that each time I ran before my numbers went up, because I got into areas I hadn't gone.

So I knew that it was being at the doors was going to be that that difference maker.

It was getting out earlier.

It was galvanizing volunteers and making sure you had people that were going out there knocking with you, knocking without you you know, when we started going into our area of making phone banking the same thing, you know, let's just keep on the pressure of there is a Democratic candidate and also working family candidate.

I can't leave out that part of it.

I was endorsed by two parties.

that, you know, you got you have options.

and so the recognition also came favorable because people were like, wow, okay.

I remember you from 2020, you know 19, 2021 and 2023.

>> You probably been to their door before.

>> I it was like Marv.

And I'm.

>> Like.

>> That's a great feeling.

>> And so on election night, your margin was 11.

>> Yeah.

So interesting story.

I thought I had lost because I was looking at my phone.

It didn't refresh when I got to the hotel and the Hyatt.

And so when everybody started rushing up to me, I got nervous, like, what's going on?

And they're like, you won.

And so when I did the refresh, they had me up like, you know, 30, 40 votes.

And then when we went off to the back room to get everybody together to come out, my wife said, while you're on stage, you went to even.

And then by the.

>> Time at one point it was like a statistical tie.

>> It was a statistical, statistical.

>> Tie, if I can even say that.

Yeah.

Right.

>> And so then getting off the stage, I was down by like five votes.

>> Yeah.

>> And so they were like, you know, they're still coming in, you know, don't be nervous.

Go home.

And I was like, I haven't been nervous because I've been on the losing end.

I've already experienced that.

It's the winning end.

Right.

And so the other thing too, that people weren't aware of was that back in June, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, but I didn't share that with anyone.

so I was going through the journey of prostate, the appointments talk with doctors, you know, which everything came out favorable.

My surgery was a week after the election.

>> Wow.

How are you doing?

>> I'm cancer free.

>> Awesome.

>> I'm cancer free.

Yeah, I had the surgery done.

The biggest thing now is controlling my bladder.

Right?

>> I don't know if we needed that part.

>> Mark Rutte.

I'm glad you're doing well.

>> I am so transparent because.

>> This show puts.

>> Everything out there.

>> It really does, Evan.

>> But it gave me a different perspective that night when everybody was really upset and nervous and not sure which way it was going.

I was like, look, I've been on a fight on two fronts this whole time, and they only knew of the one fight.

And so when I went home, I had calm, you know, a reassurance that this battle isn't over.

It's going to end the way you expect it to end.

But this is the part of the journey because there's other purpose that you have, and you can't be ready for it if you haven't been tested by fire.

So when I went home and laid down the next morning, I got up.

I was up by 11.

>> And that's it.

So that was the that was the final count after election night.

But then they got to do the absentees and the recount.

Your final margin ends up being 24.

>> So the final margin I had to win by 27.

Otherwise it was a recount.

So my final numbers were 24 after the recount.

>> After recount okay.

>> So that is the final margin 24.

>> Votes the final.

>> Which you know so Don wins by 12.

Officially you win by 24.

In reality Don won by seven people.

You won by 13 people.

Because assuming those people were going to vote one way or another, right.

If seven people decided not to vote for Don and swapped it, Don doesn't win.

If if 13 people out of 5000 plus changed their minds, you don't win.

That is not a lot of people, Mark.

>> It's not.

>> It's not.

>> And I was on the phones calling people 45 minutes up to 15 minutes rather up to the close of the the election voting process.

I did not take anything for granted.

I was saying, hey, look, you need to get out there.

If you haven't gotten out there.

You know, I was waking people up that had laid down and said, oh, I forgot.

No, no, you need to get up, get to your voting.

So when they say elections matter, voting matters.

We are.

>> This is the evidence.

>> Yes.

>> This is it right here.

Alex Sheldon wins in the town of Webster.

A little bit of history here.

So the last time that a Democrat won the supervisor's job in Webster and stayed a Democrat through that term was in the 1980s, there has been one Democrat since.

Alex tells me within the last decade.

But during that term, changed parties.

>> Yes.

>> Became a Republican.

So Democrats haven't done great in Webster in a long time.

But what was the registration like in in your town?

>> So the registration I don't have the exact numbers, but it was pretty evenly split between 33 unaffiliated, 33% Republican, 33% Democrat.

And I think we just barely outnumbered the Republicans.

But if you look at the data, one of the other members I was running with was showing me the data, like the Republicans were switching to unaffiliated at a faster rate than the Democrats were.

So we were we were actually like, we we had the ability to win.

>> What when did you know on election night that it was going to be as tight as it as it was?

>> I was with my wife and two of our candidates that were running, Brittany Bonanno, who ran for justice, and Nick Hunter, who ran for town board.

And they're refreshing like crazy.

I'm sitting there just trying to be peaceful.

I was actually talking to Marv when they came in, came up to me, and Nick goes, Alex, it's in.

You won by ten votes, ten votes.

And I'm like, oh.

>> When he means it's in, it's like everything is that was that.

We can count.

>> They said 100% precincts reporting.

It was ten votes for the victory.

And then the next like I, I got told, you know, we're confident in this.

Whatever recounts aren't going to change that much.

Mail ins tend to lean Democrat.

You know, I'm still nervous.

But you know, and then the next day came and we found out that two voting machines in Webster didn't have their memory cards uploaded properly.

So we had to get those come in and we were waiting for about 30 minutes or so after we found out.

But then it turned out that I only lost three votes in that.

>> Okay.

And so the official after election night tally for you was a seven vote margin.

Yes.

In a in a town with my count was a little more than 11,000 votes.

Yeah, that's not right.

So 11,000 votes, seven votes the margin.

You're confident, as you said, that it's going to stay your way, but you don't know yet until you're done.

And what was life like for you?

Waiting for those answers.

>> So I it was it was stressful.

I kept telling people that I'm stress cleaning instead of cleaning for fun, which is what I wanted to get back to.

But thankfully, I have a lot of non-profits that I work with and a very strong community that I was able to just bury myself in helping out with our Webster Comfort Care Home, the Webster Community Chest, and the Webster Rotary.

I just want to give them a lot of credit because they, you know, I kept busy and I just kept helping people, and that was the whole goal of this help as many people as humanly possible and get them involved.

>> So 65 votes is the official margin.

Yes.

Out of 11,000 plus votes cast.

so congratulations to all three of our guests, but also congratulations to anybody who runs, because the people who didn't win these three races, that's maybe even harder to be on that side of it.

What was your relationship like with your opponent in the race there?

Alex?

>> so Sean and I had met Sean.

Hannah.

Yes.

Sean.

Hannah had met just a few times here and there.

It was.

It was pretty friendly.

we actually got some heat from both of our parties that we were a little too friendly.

because, you know, we'd see each other, we'd shake hands, we'd say, hey, how's it going?

You know, we were we were invested in our community, and that's what we wanted to be, what we want to see in politics.

And that is two people that are just trying to do their best job instead of drag each other down.

And it was it was very nice, honestly.

>> Well, I mean, listeners probably remember the national ad in the Utah governor's race where the Republican who won, Spencer Cox, who's still the governor of Utah, ran a number of ads with the Democrat basically saying we're running against each other, but we like each other and the state's going to be okay no matter how this comes out.

And people really appreciated that across the country, not just in Utah where it was happening.

So anyway, kudos to you for demonstrating that we can still run races like that.

I think people do appreciate that.

>> I think local races is where we have the most impact on that, because we're looking to represent an entire town, not just the party of the town that we're running with.

Absolutely.

And I when I say I wanted to represent Webster and work for Webster, I meant all of Webster, not just those who might agree with me.

>> So now listeners have heard the story of these very, very tight races in our region.

I do need to ask all three of our guests, does this mean you have to do this again next year for for listeners who've been following the local races and they've been asking like, does that apply to towns that apply to county like, because you probably heard elections in some of these races are moving to even numbered years for next year.

So you got to do this again in a year.

>> Oh yeah.

Yep.

>> I mean, I again I think that's wild.

and do you expect to have the same opponent and just rerack the whole thing?

>> I don't know, I don't know if we're going to run it back exactly the same way.

But I mean, it's it's a lot different game now.

I'm an incumbent, and, you know, it's a lot easier for me to be in public as the town supervisor as it was.

You know, there's a lot of places that don't want any political operatives or anybody really, candidates running to keep it out because, you know, it's a tricky area these days.

So but I'm able to be there as town supervisor and I just, I just want to do the best job I can and look forward to winning again in November.

>> And running on your record.

>> Exactly.

>> Yeah.

I mean, I hear that.

What about you, Don Cotter?

You got to do this again in.

>> The year.

>> Yeah.

Fortunately for me, Evan, we've got a three year stint, so.

That right?

Yeah.

>> How did.

>> You pull.

>> That off?

Yeah, just the luck of the draw, I guess.

So I'm not sure exactly who made that decision, but I'm glad that they did, because although once again, just like in Webster we were very, very fortunate.

The person I ran against who was the incumbent, he and I don't know each other hardly at all.

once again, I came from outside the political sphere.

but we both ran campaigns based upon issues that we believed in our own backgrounds.

There was no.

>> You respect.

>> The guy?

Yeah, absolutely.

You know, he did great things for the town for the four years that he was supervisor and the years before that, that he was on the board.

Yeah.

I just thought that I would bring different skill sets and some different ideas to the board.

And with the two people that I ran with who also were neophytes on the political scene to have if we won, which we did to have the town, ultimately the board represent and reflect really more what the composition of the town is.

Once again, since it's not 100% of one party, but yet the town board had been 100% one party.

Now it reflects more what the population looks like.

>> Well, some some glass ceilings broken.

Tell us a little bit more about that.

>> Yeah.

So, historically.

So it's been 20, you know, you know, we talk about, you know, you have to run as a party of some sort.

Right?

So we ran as Democrats.

The other guys were Republicans.

But once again, to the comments made earlier, we hope to represent everybody.

But in that process it had been 25 years since a Democrat had been town supervisor.

>> So Canandaigua.

>> In Canandaigua there had never been a time that two Democrats were on the board at the same time.

once we had an independent who basically, you know, acted like a Democrat.

and then certainly we've never had three.

So we broke that barrier that for the first time ever, Democrats, actually, I'm putting this in air quotes for people on the radio.

control the board.

Although once again, that is not our desire is to control anything as one party where our intent is to work together.

And for the first time ever, we broke the color barrier.

There's a black man, a very proud black man, who is now part of our not only part of our town board now, but he got more votes than anybody else that ran from, including myself and the person I ran against and anybody else on the board.

>> And he should be the supervisor.

>> Maybe he.

>> And and.

>> And believe.

>> Me.

>> And believe me, someday he will be.

But we're in a very white community, and so it makes me proud that our community and makes Bobby Ellis, who is the gentleman in question, very, very proud that his community supported him the way that they did.

>> All right.

Well Councilman elect Ellis is going to be welcome on this program.

We'll talk about that in the future.

That'd be great.

So a lot of change.

And what about you, Marvin Stepherson?

You ran for Monroe County Legislature.

So for the people who are wondering, do you have to do this again in a year?

What's the answer?

>> so that right now my understanding is no.

>> Yeah.

I think that you're clear on that.

>> Yeah.

>> So either way, I'm just.

I'm grateful like, my my my peers here the people of our district spoke I'm the first Democrat to have disposition in Chile as well as the first person of color.

which I didn't think about.

Didn't even know until the end.

It was like, wow, this is history.

And so that's a lot to wrap your brain around that you you made history.

you did what people thought was unthinkable.

unlikely.

just because it had not happened.

but I come from, you know a family as well as an experience of nothing is unsurmountable.

if you put your mind and efforts to it and you persevere, you can do anything that that that's why, you know, when many looked at my young, small frame as a kid and they heard that I was going into the Marine Corps, they were like, what?

They're going to break you.

But they didn't.

They built me.

same thing with going into the police department, you know, city school district, young kid.

no background in law enforcement, even though I had family members in other parts of the country that worked in law enforcement, they didn't see me as being able to.

But yet again, 25 years, in 20 of those years, I was an instructor teaching the next generation.

and so it's always been those things in my life that have put me in a position of challenge and being able to stay confident, be confident that you know, I can inspire people to help support and that's what you know, that's what happened on, on election night.

And I would be remiss if I didn't say that God was also a part of that, because he's always been a part of my life.

and that's where I draw my strength from.

that's what got me through both my election and my journey with cancer.

So I'm one of those that I believe that everybody deserves to be represented.

Everybody deserves to be heard.

And that's what I ran on.

People over politics.

I serve Republicans, independent, conservative as well as Democrat and working family in Chile.

And that's the kind of person I've always been.

And that's what I plan to bring to Chile as their new county ledge.

>> Well, after we take our only break of the hour, we're going to talk about what these candidates and now electees what they were hearing from voters in a very close electorate, but certainly a time where for Democrats nationally and across our region, the results really, really swung.

This was a very strong year for Democrats.

You heard Alex Sheldon.

I think if I'm remembering mentioned that there were more Republicans moving toward independence and it was a better trend in his town.

So in places where Democrats haven't won either for a long time or in some places ever, they are winning.

What's what's the story there?

And then the glass ceiling is broken.

I'm really glad that Don mentioned what happened in Canandaigua Marv's talking about, you know, winning a very hard and important race there.

I recently heard a piece of historical trivia that I did.

I did not know.

So I'm not going to quiz anybody here and act like I knew this.

The first black governor in this country.

I wonder if most people would know this name.

It's an amazing name.

Pinckney, Benton, Stewart Pinchback PBS Pinchback is his name, and he only served for a short time in Louisiana in the 1870s.

but the first elected black governor.

So you had PBS pinchback in the 1870s.

Do you know when the next time a black person was elected governor of any state, 1989 1989?

>> Wow.

>> Doug Wilder in Virginia.

It's amazing.

So glass ceilings are hard to break.

Let's take a break.

We'll come right back and continue the conversation with Don Cotter in Canandaigua Marvin Stepherson, the western part of Monroe County, Alex Scialdone in Webster winning some of the closest elections this year.

>> Coming up in our second hour, take the quiz with us.

Get ready for the annual quiz on the new words and phrases added to the dictionaries.

The official sanctioned dictionaries take their time studying words and phrases that have become popular in their usage, and they've got a threshold to decide what actually gets in.

So six seven unfortunately.

But what else?

Take the quiz with us.

One of the most fun hours of the year on Connections.

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>> This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson Don Cotter with a one vote margin on election night.

Wins by 12 in Canandaigua Alex Scialdone with a seven vote margin after election night wins by 65 votes out of more than 11,000 cast.

In the town of Webster, Marvin Stepherson with an 11 vote margin on election night, wins by 25.

In the western part of Monroe County and the legislature there.

And these are civics lessons.

I joke with Don Cotter that election night, you had to figure out that you were going to be a civics lesson with a one vote margin.

but, you know, you talk to voters and did you find people to be energized?

Did you find people disaffected?

I mean, do you look back now and go, oh, my gosh, a 12 vote margin?

I talked to a lot of people who told me they just weren't voting.

I mean, what was it like for you talking to voters?

>> Well, so it's interesting you go back to, you know, people not voting, right.

So I can't speak for any other region except for the town because I looked up those numbers.

So historically, in the odd year election, the local year election, 25% of the people vote.

So one of our messages that we wanted to get out there and see what people responded to was, you know, you need to get on vote, right?

You know, we talk about your vote matters, but most people don't think their vote matters because most people think on a national level.

Most people think especially in the state of New York, where a lot of people's votes don't matter on national issues.

But on the local level, they totally do matter, right?

And so, so every single piece of Mailer that went out, postcards that went out knocking on doors, we basically said, please get out and vote.

So that was part of it is just to get out, you know, to to invigorate people, to say if you're not happy, right?

Don't be part of the 75% who don't vote, be part of the 25% that went to 40%.

So it's still not 70% like a presidential election, but it's higher.

But the other message that we tried to send out there was that we are one town with many voices, and once again, totally one town, right?

And our goal is to to make sure that we're, you know, as elected officials, as public servants, that we are representing one town, but there are many voices.

And if those voices aren't being heard because you have one party representation, let's get greater representation so that all your voices can be heard.

And as a result, people spoke to us.

Right?

So you get to hear about all the issues that you know, from little issues, like there's a sidewalk going in in front of my house or I'm not happy about it, to larger issues like, you know, where's the electricity going to come from to fund growth, et cetera.

So so part of it was just to, to really beg people to become involved.

But then once you begged people and once again talk about knocking on doors and engaging as much as possible with all the different ways that people do it within a campaign.

I think that, you know, the fact that we went from 25 to 40 meant that people did get engaged.

>> Everybody who runs a campaign has a a chance to decide, do I want to just knock on doors?

Do I want to target voters who are my party and independents?

I'm curious to know if you bumped into Republicans who, you know, maybe are suspicious of Democrats and had questions for you about that?

>> Yeah, absolutely.

And it really ran the range, unfortunately, is is is no surprise to anybody because of things that are happening on a national level.

There are some people that are truly identified themselves only as one thing, right?

Either I'm a Republican or I'm a I'm a Democrat.

And and so there's no question that we ran into some people who said, no need to talk to me.

>> I'm a Republican.

>> Because I'm a Republican.

And as a result, we politely, you know, removed ourselves from those conversations after thanking them for their time.

But quite a few Republicans, independents and Democrats who vote lots of different ways you know, did get engaged.

The tough part is talking about knocking on doors.

You know, this just, you know, people have active lives.

And so you really just can't knock on doors.

You have to figure out lots of different ways to get engaged with people.

>> Plus people have to answer the door even if they're home.

>> That's right.

>> 10% of the people answer the door, and that 10%, maybe 10% of that, actually engage with you in conversation.

But those conversations are very, very valuable.

And it did cross the spectrum.

we tried not to go to, you know, if we only had so much time, you try to knock on Democrats and Independents doors because you have that's probably your best soil to plant in.

but once again, you're walking by people on the street, you're going to events, you're talking to everybody.

>> So the Trump statue house is probably.

>> Yeah, probably not.

>> But at.

>> The same time, though, Don, I'm with you in that the idea I'm sure there are people who say, look, I'm a Democrat.

Don't talk to me.

If you're a Republican, I'm a Republican.

Don't talk to me if you're a Democrat.

But local governance is so different than national governance.

>> You're absolutely right, Evan.

But some people don't see it that way.

Fortunately, most people do.

>> I would.

>> Think so.

And I think hopefully, because once again, I hope to to help govern an entire town of many, many voices that that we get to hear all those voices and act upon.

We're going to start having town hall meetings, which have never happened before in our town, or at least not in the 25 years I've lived there, to where we get to hear all those voices, because there's not necessarily a forum for those folks to hear.

Hear from them on a regular basis.

but unfortunately, you know, on the national level that some of that does seep into the local level as well.

>> Yeah.

Politics becomes kind of a team sport in that way.

But I think there's still a lot of people who view I want the competent person locally.

>> Absolutely.

>> see why emails to say hopefully these close elections will remind these officials, be they Democrat, Republican or independent, that even though we call it a race, it is not winner take all.

It is winner serves all, as in, they are there to serve the interests and desires of all the citizens, not just the people who voted for them.

>> I could not agree more.

And I think, frankly, the fact that the races were as close as they were just bring that to the fore, right?

It means that once again, it's not 75% voting one way.

And so, you know, once again, you march down that path.

Once again, we have no consensus, right?

We have no mandate.

Our mandate is to work with everybody because half the people plus 12 voted for me, half the people -12 voted for the other guy.

Right.

And so we need to bring everybody together after that.

>> Marv, when we've talked a little bit about your campaign this year, but when you were out there talking to folks, you've had a chance now in four different campaigns to knock on a lot of doors.

So you start to get recognized.

But what were you hearing from from voters who maybe were either independent or Republicans who might be skeptical of voting for a Democrat?

>> So to the last caller's remarks that's why we're sitting here now.

I think each one of us, like myself, went to the door, one listening more than talking because you don't know what to address.

If you're the only one talking.

And people have concerns, but nobody's listening to them.

So one of the things I heard from the first three to this last election run was you come to the door more than the the person that represents my party.

you actually come to the doors and you listen, you spend time which, you know, it kind of goes against what we're told to do.

You get to the door, get the literature 15 seconds, and then you're out, and it's like, no, I refuse to do that.

I'm going to get to as many doors as I can, but each door, I want to make sure that when I engage with people that they remember me, and the only way they're going to do that is if one I listen to them, I hear them actively listening.

And I think that's a great thing for being a teacher is that, you know, you you really hone those skills listening to your students.

And so I had a unique position of being in class.

and having young folk tell me the challenges that they're facing, and then seeing that as a, as a teacher my, my young family at home, my youngest being 20 26 and 28 are all in the same pool as my students.

And so I see their challenges of trying to go and work multiple jobs and not have enough to afford for rent.

Right.

So my son just moved out of the house, finally got an apartment.

but my other two were still struggling trying to get that.

And so I heard that same challenge that I'm seeing at the doors with my, my my voters, the seniors going into the, the housing, and hearing their challenges of will my property stay affordable rather than market value.

Right.

And so we see a lot of our young rather our seniors, I call them young seniors, but they, they, they are challenged with being placed out of their home into another center because the owners of those properties want to go market value instead of affordable living.

So it's knowing that there's a challenge at the stores, you know, can I afford my, my, my food?

Can I afford my medication?

Can I afford rent or mortgage?

hearing those things and knowing that it's more of a national conversation, but it's really us as local leaders that will impact that the most because we can have relationships with businesses and say, hey, look, don't gouge the residents, right?

You're making enough.

Make sure that we have alternatives and partner with the businesses and also partner with the community organizations and say, what can we do to meet the needs of our residents?

and so I know that that's going to be my challenge as a county alleged, one of 29 representing Chile is to make sure that the needs and the issues of Chile make it into those county meetings, into those caucus and those committee meetings, so that I can have other support from the other 28 on how can I service my, my, my residents.

Right.

>> I also think that you are a good reminder that too often in politics and in media, we put people into boxes based on 1 or 2 characteristics that we assume defines them.

So if I were to tell somebody, I'm going to describe a politician, military service.

>> Yeah.

>> Cop.

>> Yeah.

>> Talks about loving God.

>> Yeah.

>> What party you think I'm talking about.

>> Marv?

>> I mean, it's I think it's probably nice for people to feel like we can defy.

Simple expectations, and and that probably brings more common ground, probably for you.

It brings some common ground with Republican voters.

>> Absolutely, absolutely.

And that's a great point, too, because when they look at my literature a lot I go to everybody when I was going to one door and I see somebody in their yard, I'm going to them as well, even though they're not on my list.

And so it was two ladies that were out, you know, they were having conversation.

And and I walked up to him, introduced myself, and I handed both of my literature and one lady, she goes, so are you Republican?

Because it wasn't on my literature.

But when she read and looked at, you know, we compartmentalize everything.

And I said, no, I'm Democrat and working family.

I said, but more importantly, I'm your neighbor and I want to be your representative.

And it's because of the service that I gave in law enforcement.

You can see those 25 years that I was committed in the military, not one, but two branches of service, 27 years in total.

I was committed 13 years in education from K through 12 to higher ed, both at the community college as well as at the university, committed.

So that's what you want for a representative, somebody who's going to be committed because you know that they're going to be committed to those issues that you have that you want to address.

They're going to be committed to getting back to you when you have a question, rather than you send in a message or you phone in and you never hear from them, that's not me.

And I have that legacy of having worked in all those different capacities, but also the breadth of time that I spent in there.

So that's what I, I shared with them when I, when I stood on their doorsteps and, and thanked them for their time, was saying that, look, by voting for me, you're going to get somebody that's committed not only to the cause, but committed to you.

>> Now you got to put your money where your mouth is now that you've won this thing.

>> So absolutely.

>> That's what he wanted.

Alex.

Sheldon, what were you hearing from voters in a town where as you say, pretty evenly split.

I mean, not a perfect, but roughly 33. unaffiliated voters, 33 Republican, 33 Democrat.

But moving those, moving away from their party toward independent were more Republican than Democrat.

Is that right?

Yes.

Why do you think that that is?

>> I honestly just think nationally, they're a little more disenfranchized with the political party system.

I saw it when I was petitioning early in the year to get on the ballot.

Is there were we would go specifically to Democratic households and you would get their signature because you need a certain percentage of Democratic voters in your region signatures in order to appear on the ballot.

And a lot of people would say, this reminds me, I need to go independent.

And then I started seeing the data that's coming from both sides.

And I think people are just really disenfranchized with the party system and the attacking.

And they just they don't like it.

They don't want to be associated with either one.

>> Yeah, that's that's interesting because what you're really describing is a brand problem that the Republican Party currently has.

But there's also a brand party.

If you are running in the on the federal level for Democrats, the farther away you get away from urban centers.

So maybe it's both parties are not very popular right now.

To your point.

So what were people looking for?

What are people talking to you about?

>> So what I was mainly talking about and I ran a campaign my main issue was our open space preservation and overdevelopment of our town.

we we extended fast again.

>> He's talking about Webster here.

>> Yep.

Yeah.

Webster went from a smaller town.

It was a very rural community for a long time, and we're now 45,000 people.

That's that's a very large town.

We have the third largest school district, I think, behind Greece.

And around decoy.

but not counting the city.

And so a lot of people like safety, public safety, like, you know, Don said that people don't want sidewalks in their front yard.

And I'm having people begging me to put sidewalks.

>> In their front yard.

Yeah.

>> like, they they want to see more of our trees staying up and less clearcutting for our development.

our, you know, we went for so long for spending so little that most of our buildings were going derelict.

And then it was a sticker shock when it found out how much it was, because we couldn't keep repairing it with chewing gum and paperclips anymore.

And so people really, they just wanted leaders that were going to listen to them.

They wanted to say, well, hold on, where's my voice?

And that's where I came in.

And I said, that's me.

I'm here to serve you.

It doesn't matter what party I'm affiliated with.

I want to serve you.

And there was one one day I was walking with one of my volunteers, Cecilia, who's one of the most lovely people, and I'm so happy to have met her.

we're going door to door, and we have a list from the county, and it's, you know, everybody who's a Democrat and an independent that votes every year.

Right?

And, you know, you go and you knock on their doors.

And I said, you know, let's knock on every door.

That's I want to talk to everybody.

So but there was one household and you know like Marv, I don't state my party.

I just tell him I'm Alex Scialdone.

I'm running for Webster town supervisor this year.

I just come in to see if you have questions for me or anything.

You want to see the next town supervisor tackle.

And we talked about overdevelopment.

We talked about safety, speeding, all this stuff.

And it was great.

And then she goes, oh wait, what party are you with?

And I said, I'm with the working families and the Democratic Party.

And she slammed the door in my face.

So there, there are people like that, like you see it all, but there, there are other people who just they don't care.

They they they look, I knocked at Republican homes that loved me.

They loved everything I had to say.

They, they, they registered when they voted to turn, when they turned 18 to vote.

And that's not their identity.

It's just what they did when they were 18.

And it's not something that's on the top of their mind.

I think people wanted to see an engaged individual out there.

>> Let me turn that around.

If you were at home and someone running for office came and they told you they were a Republican, would you slam the door in their face?

>> No.

>> You'd listen.

Yeah, yeah.

And most people, I mean, I take the point on this is going to happen sometimes, but most people did not slam doors in your faces.

>> No, most people did not.

I'm just that's like the one thing that I remember most.

And then one guy in his underwear answered the door and actually stepped out onto his porch, fully in his boxers.

>> Takes all kinds, man.

but really, I don't think we're in a healthy place.

If the only thing that matters to a voter is what political team you're on?

>> No.

And I saw that both sides.

There were some doors I would knock on and they'd say, you know, what party are you with?

And I'd say, I'm a Democrat.

And they look at me and they go, oh, well, you already have my vote.

And I'd sit there and I'd stand there and I'd go, can I tell you why?

At least because I want to have it.

Because I want this.

Because I'm good at this.

Because it's what I believe in, not because of a D next to my name.

And I think that resonated with a lot of people.

>> Well, let me work in a little bit more feedback here.

This is an email from Rick who says, Evan, I agree that voting matters and that each person's vote matters.

I have studied enough the efforts of black people to get the right to vote, guaranteed to know that this is a hard earned right for so many of us.

But in addition to voting, I think it is just as important to be an informed voter.

My great frustration is that too often, people vote without taking the time to be really informed.

I would be interested in what your guests think can be done to increase the likelihood that voters will be better informed and vote for candidates who will actually be trustworthy and responsible stewards of the offices in which they are elected.

Truth in advertising disclosure I have served as an elections inspector in Monroe County for more than 20 years, and have also engaged in voter education prior to elections.

That's from Rick.

What do you think, Alex?

>> to be honest, that's a that's a hard problem to solve because as back in the day, you could put out stuff on TV, you could put out stuff in the paper and everybody saw it.

Now we all get news from different sources.

We all have different social media we are on.

So, you know, door knocking is the number one.

But one thing I do want to bring up too is that each every town has a Republican and a Democratic committee.

if you're interested in either running for office or meeting your candidates, you can you can contact them.

Most of them don't like they want to hear from you.

And that is a safe place that you can actually meet with these candidates, as you have your Republicans and your Democratic committees, you can reach out to them.

You can say, hey, you know, we'd like to meet the candidates that are on the ballot if they have enough support and interest in that, they they would happily make that happen.

And I honestly think that's one thing that people don't know a lot about.

Are those little committees.

>> I first of all, I would endorse everything you say there.

And I would also say that the you know, it's dangerous to try to speak for the founders of the country.

What would the framers say?

But clearly there was not an obsession with everything.

Must be national politics all the time.

But when media falls apart, when journalism goes away, especially small, you know, smaller outlets, smaller newsroom, regional coverage, newspapers, the messenger posts of the world, all the different things that used to cover the county commission meeting, the town council, the school board.

Then people get focused only on what the national scene is.

And then they do think it's a team sport, and they think that just filters down to what Don and Marv and Alex are going to be doing, as opposed to saying, hey, locally, let's get informed here.

But there's less of an opportunity to do that.

There's more fragmented media, and most people are focused on more on national things.

That's my way of saying during pledge week at WXXI, I'm I'm glad we're here.

And one of the amazing things is when we talk to candidates, we we try to invite as many candidates as possible to be on this program for 30 or 60 minutes before the election so people can hear them at length.

And the amount of feedback we get from listeners is amazing.

They say, like, this is the place that I can hear that.

But it used to be a lot more places, and I don't think that's a healthy place to be.

I don't know what we do about that.

We're just going to keep being here ourselves.

But I'm glad to hear you bring that up.

I'm just worried about what that portends out.

>> Yeah, no.

And there are things like, we have a wonderful communications director in the town of Webster that I've been talking to right now.

And, you know, even I'd like to, you know, start doing what she calls extended office hours, where you can sit and you can meet with your public official and talk to them about literally anything.

If you want to come and scream at me, I'm okay with that, because that's what I'm there for.

>> But come back on the show sometime and we'll grill you proper.

>> I like that.

>> Marv, what would you say to Rick who you know is talking about the hard earned right to vote, but also the importance of being informed.

How do we get more people better informed?

>> my response would be that, you know, knowledge is a is a curse.

I think a lot of people you know, they go to, to certain social media platforms of their choosing because it's information that is confirmation bias.

It's something they want to hear.

They accept, they embrace.

They don't want to be challenged.

you know, for some political groups, they don't want the public to know because then they can manipulate and do things the way they want to do it, right?

In other areas, people say, well, I'm not informed, but they don't seek out to find the information that is readily available.

We have the internet.

The most information driven things at the at your fingertips.

You know, you pick up your device and you can find out anything you want.

so I believe that, you know having a platform wherein you put out the information to as many areas as possible, whether it be social, economic or age driven you know, seek out those platforms where, you know, people are going to the most and you try to get the most information out there being transparent with information that you may not completely agree with, but you want to find out people's you know, perspective on that.

And so to Rick's point certainly what we can do as far as getting our committees up and running, if they're not running or making them stronger for the ones that are in existence and getting on those platforms like Facebook and Instagram and TikTok getting into some of the platforms that are still available, like, you know, the XXI or the post or whatever, you got to make sure that that you get the information out there.

But ultimately it's going to be up to those who want to be.

>> Informed.

>> Want to be informed.

All right, Don, about a minute.

>> Go ahead.

>> Yeah.

Similarly, I mean, we're very lucky in Canandaigua that we have the Daily Messenger still as a local newspaper and the Finger Lakes Times, both of which did extensive articles on all the candidates.

but once again, their readership is down.

Right.

So it's great that we have them.

It's great that they took the responsibility to get the messaging out there for each candidate.

And, and everybody had the same opportunity to speak.

But once again, they're only going to reach so much.

So once again, the scatter, you know, kind of approach is, is the way it has to happen to figure out where you can get truthful information.

Right?

Because once again, the internet is great, but the internet's horrible, right?

Because because, you know, we all, we all see that people fill in the, the void and the gaps with lots of rumors and lots of whatever.

but we have to take all those approaches once again from our committees.

You know, once again, we did house parties, some House parties.

We had a ton of people, some house parties.

We had hardly anybody.

But that's one way to reach people.

But we need to do a better job at reaching out to people.

And people like Rick need to figure out how to reach out to the places that they can get it.

>> So I want to congratulate the candidates.

Really, anybody who ran in elections this year.

Congratulations on the hard work of running.

And three of the very, very closest Don Cotter and Canandaigua come back sometime.

I will.

Thanks for being here.

Marvin Stepherson the Monroe County Legislature.

Thank you sir and Alex Scialdone in Webster.

Thank you Alex.

>> Thanks for having me.

>> More Connections coming up in just a moment.

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