To the Editor:
Thank you for bringing to attention the fear of an Afghanistan family living in Guilderland as a result of the school environment where their child is experiencing bullying with alleged death threats [“GCSD debates: Will a second SRO quell violence?” The Altamont Enterprise, Nov. 22, 2022].

Your article quoted [a statement written by the father of the family], saying, “The Guilderland High School is now trying to somehow remove my son from school because they are unable to control the situation.” [The article also included a response from the school superintendent, saying, “Students have the right to come to school and we do our very best when they’re here to keep everyone safe.”]

I worry about retaliation towards the family. A few months ago, you printed my letter to the editor about my dismay upon the resignation for personal reasons of Guilderland Town Board member Laurel Bohl [“I hadn’t cried like that since I lost a pet,” The Altamont Enterprise, Aug. 12, 2022].

To recap, my letter spoke to concern surrounding Supervisor Peter Barber’s comments into the official record of a town board meeting that the work Laurel Bohl did alongside a couple of board members may be a violation and give the appearance of closed-door meetings.

I was concerned enough to write my letter to the editor after listening to his statements, knowing that she had joined the board without having been selected by Jacob Crawford ….

With the ink of my letter to the editor barely dry, I went to the Guilderland Public Library on or about Nov. 2 to try to vote early. Peter Barber was present and on the left-hand voting line. I went off to the right side of the room to look at a ballot poster and artwork to create space and time distance between us and waited until he had appeared to have voted before I joined the right-side line.

When it was my turn to vote, a poll worker whom I had not been speaking to interjected himself into a conversation saying, “My name is Brian Wilson, like the Beach Boys.”

My husband voted first. I observed Peter Barber standing to the right of the voting machine; he had not left the room. Poll worker Brian Wilson delayed giving me my ballot and a poll worker asked him to give it to me.

Once my husband stepped away and while I was actively voting, Peter Barber came up inches behind me and my wheeled walker, leaned into my neck and to the poll worker, Brian Wilson, delaying giving me my ballot.

Peter Barber told Brian Wilson he was going to stop by his house and/or call him to discuss the Traffic Safety Committee. Only days earlier, I had received documents from my Freedom of Information Law request on the Traffic Safety Committee.

I was frightened by Peter Barber … I asked poll worker Brian Wilson why he had let Peter Barber come at me … Brian Wilson acknowledged it and added, “Peter Barber is my neighbor and I am on the Traffic Committee.”

Through their actions, I lost my vote and another poll worker told me to get my husband to complete my ballot. There is more and you can read about it in the police report of Nov. 3, 2022 filed by suggestion of the Albany County Board of Elections.

Christine Duffy

Guilderland

Editor’s note: Investigator’s case notes from a Nov. 3, 2022 Guilderland Police report said there is no video in the library room where voting took place, that Brian Wilson was interviewed and remembered the incident but reported that what Christine Duffy reported was not true. When Peter Barber came over to speak to Wilson he was not near Duffy, Wilson told investigators.

The police paperwork includes a description of events from Duffy, similar to her description in this letter. She writes that Barber, after voting, “came over to me while I was in the active voting process to harass, intimidate, and scare me out of line … starting a conversation with poll worker Brian Wilson that ‘next week, you and I have to get together to talk about the Traffic Safety Committee.’”

Duffy writes that she was so distraught that she made several errors filling out ballots until finally her husband filled out her ballot. “I do not know whether he filled out my ballot as I wanted,” Duffy writes of her husband.

The paperwork also includes a deposition filled out by a poll worker whose name is blacked out, stating that “Cynthia Duffy” was able to cast her ballot after needing three ballots because of errors.

Officer Eric Batchelder concluded that Barber “did not intentionally or otherwise attempt harass, intimidate or prevent [Duffy] from voting. [Duffy] did, in fact submit her ballot in the voting machine. This case will be closed.”

The Enterprise called Peter Barber, seeking comment, and received a call in response from James Melita, Guilderland’s town attorney, stating, “It’s been investigated by the police department. It’s demonstrably false … Peter didn’t even know Ms. Duffy was in the room.”

Melita urged The Enterprise to not publish Duffy’s letter.

Laurel Bohl was elected to the Guilderland Town Board in November 2019, took office on Jan. 1, 2020, and resigned on July 12, 2022. Jacob Crawford was appointed to fill her seat after no other candidate was to appear on the ballot; he was elected to the post in November 2022.