NEW ROCHELLE, NY — City School District of New Rochelle officials did not know whether absentee ballots had been mailed on Thursday May 28th. Despite this, Superintendent Dr. Laura Feijóo carelessly sent an email to the school community claiming the ballots would be sent out that day. By Sunday May 31st, school officials knew that the absentee ballots had not been sent but Feijóo suppressed this information for the better part of two days before falsely accusing the printer of failing to meet a prior commitment to mail the ballots, saying the printer was “overwhelmed with the sheer volume “ of ballots ordered by the District.
None of this is true.
Emails seen by Talk of the Sound show that Lisdalia Saraiva, the New Rochelle School Board Clerk who ran the 2020 School Election, never requested a specific printing date or mailing date, that the printers made no commitment to mail absentee ballots by a specific day, that the District was fully informed by the printer as to the status of the print job every step of the way, that there was no need to spend hours “to determine how this could happen” because the District knew precisely what happened — delays by the District in prepaying for postage led to delays in the printer starting the print job which took the work into the weekend when the United States Post Office does not accept bulk mail. The ballots were sent the next business day. There was never any indication that “the printer was overwhelmed with the sheer volume of the City School District of New Rochelle” but plenty of indication that school officials made false statements to voters about the whereabouts of their absentee ballots.
There was no actual delay only the appearance of a delay because there was no deadline in the contract. The appearance was created by Dr. Feijóo who claimed the ballots would reach the post office on Thursday despited all evidence to the contrary. The ballots would not reach the post office until Monday June 1st — and would be mailed from Albany not New Rochelle adding additional delay in delivery.
Any “delays” stemmed from the fact that Saraiva did not solicit a bid from a printer until May 11th, ten days after she was notified of the need to print absentee ballots, that Saravia took weeks to get a BRM or QBRM (a mail permit) from the post office, that there was a twenty day delay until the school board voted to adopt the language that would appear in the budget referendum, that Saraiva struggle to upload files to the printer’s web server and waited twenty five days before sending a check to pay for postage fees.
The check was received by the printer on May 27th, the print order was run by the weekend — three business days for more than 48,000 ballots and custom oath envelopes and return envelopes (134,000 pieces). The printed material was delivered to the post office the next business day after the print job was completed.
The train wreck that became the Great New Rochelle Absentee Ballot Fiasco of 2020 began on March 30, 2020 when Governor Andrew Cuomo issued Executive Order 202 where he ordered that school elections would be pushed back until after June 1, 2020. On May 1, 2020, Cuomo issued Executive Order 202.26 stating that school elections would be held on June 9, 2020.
Talk of the Sound filed a Freedom of Information request with the City School District of New Rochelle on August 17, 2020 seeking “records relating to the printing of ballots for the 2020 school election, including but not exclusively: RFP, Bid Responses, Communications with the printer and the City School District of New Rochelle, Invoices, and Payments.”
There are no records among those provided showing any effort to print or mail ballots until May 11, 2020.
On May 11, Saraiva sent an email to Fort Orange Press in Albany, NY introducing herself and requesting a quotation for printing and mailing more than 48,000 absentee ballots. There is no mention of a timetable.
On May 11th, Fort Orange Press told Saraiva that they could take on the work but the District would have to pay the United States Post Office directly for the postage fees, as required.
On May 13th, Saraiva accepted the bid and sent a description of the nature of the work. There is no mention of a deadline for printing or mailing the ballots.
On May 16th, Fort Orange Press told Saraiva they have not received the files they needed to start work. They had received the BRM or “Business Reply Mail” permit (sample above).
On May 18th, Saraiva told Fort Orange Press that she could not send the ballot language until the Board formally approved the budget proposition on May 21st.
On May 21st, Saraiva told Fort Orange Press that she was unable to upload files to the Fort Orange Press “share file” service.
On May 26, 2020, Saraiva told Fort Orange Press that she had the check for $31,648.50 to pay for postage and offered to send it to Albany via courier but ultimately sent the check by overnight delivery service.
On May 27, Saraiva asked Fort Orange Press to confirm when the printed ballots and oath envelopes would be delivered to the post office to be mailed to New Rochelle voters. Fort Orange Press did not respond.
On Thursday May 28th at 2:31 pm, Superintendent Dr. Laura Feijóo sent an email to the New Rochelle school community inexplicably starting “All ballots will be mailed out to the community today. “
On Sunday May 31st, Saraiva asked Fort Orange Press to confirm the date ballots to all 48,707 New Rochelle voters were sent as if Fort Orange Press had told her the ballots had been sent. They had not.
Soon after, Fort Orange Press told Saraiva the District’s order was processed over the weekend but reminded her the USPS does not accept First Class mail on the weekends.
On Monday June 1st, a frantic Saraiva repeatedly emailed Fort Orange Press asking them to confirm when the ballots were delivered to the post office.
Fort Orange Press reminded Saraiva that as they had informed her over the weekend the ballots would go to the post office on Monday.
Fort Orange Press offered to send Saravia a copy of the postal receipt and then sent it at 7:52 pm (note the date of the delivery of the mail to the post office is 12:42 pm on Monday June 1, 2020).
Before Saraiva had the USPS confirmation in hand, at 5:11 pm, Feijoo inexplicably sent another email, this one stating “I regret to have to inform you that earlier this morning we were notified that the ballots for the 2020-21 school budget vote and Board of Education election were not mailed out last week as per the printer’s commitment. We spent the past few hours trying to determine how this could happen and concluded that the printer was overwhelmed with the sheer volume of the City School District of New Rochelle. New Rochelle is significantly larger than most other district.”
“We have been given confirmation that the ballots are at the post office and will be mailed out today.”
There is no record of any commitment by the printer to mail out absentee ballots the prior week and whatever confusion may have existed the District knew on Sunday May 31st that the ballots would not be delivered to the post office until Monday June 1st. The “confirmation that the ballots are at the post office” would not be sent for two more hours.
For reasons that remain unclear, Feijóo jumped the gun on May 28th in announcing the ballots would be delivered to the post office that day when they had yet to be printed then as complaints from irate voters reached crescendo she lied about it, blaming the printer for mistakes.
Things would only get worse as the related story on massive election irregularities makes clear.
RELATED:
Total incompetence!