42 days until the Midterms – come meet Alissa Ellman on Thursday!
GVI Weekly Actions & Events
September 22, 2026
This week — three things to do
- Thursday, September 24: Meet all three Democratic candidates in Geneseo, doors at 6:15
- Saturday, September 26: Marshal training at 10:00, then the peace rally on Main Street at 1:00
- Before October 24: Check that your registration is current, and make your early-voting plan
Meet the Democratic Candidates, This Thursday
All three Democrats on your ballot will be at the Livingston County Government Building, Room 205, 6 Court Street in Geneseo this Thursday, September 24. Doors open at 6:15 and the program starts at 7:00, and we’re co-hosting with the Geneseo Democratic Committee.
- Alissa Ellman — Congress, NY-24
- Michael Mills — State Senate, NY-54
- Gladys Flores Garcia — New York State Assembly, 133
They’re taking questions from whoever turns up, so come with one you actually want answered, and bring a neighbor who hasn’t met them yet. The room holds about sixty and we’d like to fill it. We’re also collecting non-perishable food at the door for the Geneseo/Groveland Emergency Food Pantry, so a can or two in your bag is welcome.
There’s no regular Thursday meeting this week — this is where we’ll all be. Meetings pick back up at St. Michael’s on October 1.
Saturday in Geneseo: Marshal Training and the Peace Rally
On Saturday, September 26, Peace Action Geneseo runs a Safety Marshal Training Class from 10:00 AM to noon in Bailey Hall 101 at the college. Marshals keep things safe and organized and direct crowds as needed, and they’re a good part of why our events pass without any drama. There’s room in the class, and anyone trained that morning can work the October rallies, which is most Saturdays between now and the election. Sign up here.
Then at 1:00 PM, Peace Action Geneseo and Genesee Valley Citizens for Peace hold a rally for the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons at the Village Park, where Main Street meets Route 20A. It runs an hour. This one is nonpartisan and the organizers ask that we bring messages of peace and leave the campaign signs at home, so save those for Caledonia the following Saturday.
Early Voting Starts October 24
New York opens early voting on Saturday, October 24, and that same day is the deadline to register for this election. Both happen at the Livingston County Board of Elections, 6 Court Street, Room 104, in Geneseo, so someone who hasn’t registered yet can sign up and cast a ballot in one visit. Early voting then runs through Sunday, November 1, with Election Day on Tuesday, November 3.
A month out is the right time to check your own registration rather than assume it, especially if you’ve moved, changed your name, or sat out the last couple of elections. The state’s voter lookup takes about a minute and gives you your polling place along with your registration status, and anything that looks wrong is far easier to sort out now than in the last week of October.
Voting early banks your ballot, and it surfaces any problem at the polls while there are still days left to fix it, which is the thinking behind Indivisible’s national day of action on Saturday, October 17, a week before New York’s early voting opens. GVI is marking it with a No Kings: Vote Early Fair, with the place and times to come.
Coming Up
| Wed, Sep 23 | No Kings: Vote Early — Telling the Story of Election Protection 8:00–9:00 PM ET · online |
RSVP |
| Thu, Sep 24 | Meet the Democratic Candidates — no regular meeting this week Doors 6:15, program 7:00 PM · Livingston County Government Building, Room 205, 6 Court St, Geneseo |
Details |
| Thu, Sep 24 | No Kings: Vote Early — How to Host High-Impact, High-Engagement Events 8:00–9:00 PM · online · after the meet-and-greet lets out |
RSVP |
| Sat, Sep 26 | Safety Marshal Training Class 10:00 AM–noon · Bailey Hall 101, SUNY Geneseo · hosted by Peace Action Geneseo |
Sign up |
| Sat, Sep 26 | Rally — International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons 1:00–2:00 PM · Village Park, Main St at Route 20A, Geneseo · hosted by Peace Action Geneseo and Genesee Valley Citizens for Peace · nonpartisan |
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| Thu, Oct 1 | GVI Weekly Community Meeting — shifting focus to GOTV (Get Out The Vote) 6:30 PM · St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, Geneseo (red door in back) |
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| Thu, Oct 1 | Phone bank for New York’s 17th and 19th — Cait Conley and Josh Riley 5:30–7:30 PM · on Zoom · training and script provided in the session |
RSVP |
| Sat, Oct 3 | Stand Up, Fight Back Saturdays — Caledonia 12:00–1:00 PM · Monument Park, Caledonia · bring your best signs for Alissa Ellman! |
A Few Short Things
- The calls worked. The Senate voted last Tuesday on whether to open debate on the CLARITY Act and it fell short of the sixty votes it needed, which leaves the crypto bill stalled with its ethics language still unwritten. Thank you to everyone who picked up the phone that morning.
- Yard signs are on the way. The Ellman campaign’s new design went to the printer earlier this month, and several thousand free signs should be ready to hand out within the next few days. We’ll say where to pick one up as soon as we know, and the Warsaw Democratic headquarters is handling sign pickup by appointment until it opens regular hours in October.
- Canvassing for Alissa Ellman starts with a training. The campaign runs them on Zoom, and a session walks you through putting the MiniVAN app on your phone and reading a walk list. Sign up through the campaign’s volunteer page, and the Livingston County Democratic Committee is the place to start for canvassing anywhere in the county, since it hands out the walk lists for the towns.
Warsaw on Thursday, Geneseo on Saturday
Warsaw
We joined Wyoming County Indivisible on the Route 20A bridge in Warsaw on Thursday evening, for three hours of Bills gear and hand-lettered signs a few hours before kickoff. VOTE EARLY ran the length of the guardrail in cut-out letters a foot high. People came and went the whole time, and there was pizza at Suanne’s afterward.
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The signs were the usual mix of football and franchise, with BE GOOD, DO GOOD, VOTE, GO BILLS next to SHOW UP, SPEAK UP, VOTE and a quilted banner reading WE CAN DO BETTER, YOUR VOTE MATTERS, all of it facing the traffic coming through the light on 20A.
The Bills won their home opener that night, 41 to 31 over Detroit, in the first regular-season game at the new stadium. America could use a win of its own on November 3, and that one is on the ballot: vote for Alissa Ellman.
Stand Up, Fight Back Saturdays: Geneseo
Saturday took us back to Gateway Corner Park, on the grass this time rather than a sidewalk, with VOTE ELLMAN spelled out in red letters across the lawn and the flag up at the road end. There’s video from the morning, about a minute of it, showing the lettering and the line of signs along the road.
It’s up on our YouTube channel with the rest of them, and a like or a share there is what pushes one of these in front of somebody who has never stood at a rally.
Forty-Two Days
That’s what’s left between this email and November 3, and early voting takes the last nine days of it. Before that, on Saturday, October 17, we’re holding a No Kings: Vote Early Fair, a community event open to everybody and built around the plain business of taking part in a democracy. We’ll have the place and the times for you shortly.
And if you’re giving political money this fall, the campaign itself is still where it works hardest. Contribute to Alissa Ellman here.
Same Time, Every Week
- Geneseo Visibles — Wed & Fri, 4:00 PM, Gateway Corner Park
- Hemlock Rising protest — Wed, 4:30 PM, Rt 15A & Rt 20A
- What’s the Plan? — Thu, 3:00 PM Register
Full calendar & ongoing ways to plug in →
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Postcards, every week. Email Phil at paj12147@gmail.com to get a batch to write at home, or write them at the Thursday meeting — the Artist’s Team keeps a postcard station going. Order by Wednesday for Thursday’s meeting. The suggested donation for a packet of 10 postcards with stamps and an address list is now $7.00.
Know someone who should get this? Forward it, and send them to sign up →
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