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O-A students witnessed Electoral College votes being cast in Albany

By Howard B. Owens

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Peter Beuler, a teacher at Oakfield-Alabama, shared with us today this photo and information about students from O-A going to Albany on Dec. 19 to witness electors casting their votes.

Oakfield-Alabama teacher Peter Beuler’s Advanced Placement United States Government and Politics class was selected by the Governor’s office to represent the Great Lakes region on December 19th to witness New York State’s Electoral College vote for the 45th President of the United States.

The voting was conducted at noon in the Senate Chamber at the State Capitol building in Albany.

This was a prestigious honor for Oakfield-Alabama because only one-hundred high school students state-wide were chosen by the Governor’s office to observe this historic event.

The twelve students had a busy day as they left at 4:45 in the morning and didn’t get back until eight at night.

While in Albany the students were able to visit the offices of their state legislative representatives; State Senator Ranzenhofer and State Assemblyman Hawley.  During the hour-long Electoral College vote, the twelve students got to view and hear from Former President Bill Clinton, Governor Andrew Cuomo, Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul, New York City’s Mayor Bill de Blasio, Buffalo’s Mayor Byron Brown, Rochester’s Mayor Lovely Warren, and other New York State public officials.

Before departing Albany, the AP class received a guided tour of the capitol building where they ran into and got a second to speak to Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul.

The AP class and Mr. Beuler are very grateful to the community members and school’s administrative team who helped make this trip possible.

In the photo: Emily Staniszewski, Ryan Missel, Joshua Larmon, Ciera Baker, Hannah Newton, Mr. Peter Beuler. Clayton Smith, Sara Voltura, Hope Kollarik, Olivia Carroll, Jonah Schnettler, Jacob Houseknecht, Haily Davis.

Ed Hartgrove

Howard. I think the messages the twelve students heard from Former President Bill Clinton, Governor Andrew Cuomo, Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul, New York City’s Mayor Bill de Blasio, Buffalo’s Mayor Byron Brown, Rochester’s Mayor Lovely Warren, all dyed-in-the-wool, diehard Democrats, would make a great adjunct to this article.

Any chance of getting information about what those "civic leaders" talked about on that day? There may even be a chance that some of the O-A students recorded those messages.

Dec 31, 2016, 5:27pm Permalink

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