Honestly, I did not like sharing Saratoga

Nevada voters try to oust election commissioner in small town

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It  was not my typical Saratoga experience on Saturday, and I've had a lot of them.

Before the pandemic, I tried to make a trip to the Saratoga meet at least once a week during the summer. I'd announced to the newsroom I wasn't feeling well, show a big smile, maybe a wink and head for the door.

I liked to park in the fields near the Oklahoma training track where the parking was free and you could really smell the backstretch.

It was all part of the experience.

For me, there is something relaxing about immersing myself in the numbers of The Daily Racing Form as I tried to unlock the key to another exacta. It wasn't about the money - although some money would be nice - but the challenge. Each race was a puzzle to be solved.

More often than not in recent years I have gone alone, purchased general admission entry and wandered around the grandstand watching races from different vantage points. It was often just me and the Racing Form in front of a television monitor.

Most afternoons the attendance was light and I imagined this was what it used to be like to attend midweek big-league baseball games before there were lights and night games that lasted forever.

It was a packed house for the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga Saturday.

None of that reasonably describes Saturday's day at the track where the Belmont Stakes was run at Saratoga for the first time.

The first hint was on Friday night when I saw that ALL track parking had been sold out.

I've been to all the big races over the years and never saw that before. The price online was more than $20 for parking for where I usually park for free.

I discovered there was a shuttle running from downtown. It was a chance to have an adventure. The first race went off at 10:30, but with a 14-race card - there are usually just nine or 10 races - I left at about 11 a.m. I pulled into a downtown parking lot and got the last parking space.

Maybe this was my lucky day.

Ten minutes later, the trolley picked me up on Broadway over by Congress Park. I got the last seat on the trolley.

Another fortunate sign.

When I arrived at Saratoga Race Course at noon on Belmont Day, there were no lines at all.

Ten 10 minutes later, we were dropped off in the center of the horse racing universe - at least for that day. There were lots of people taking selfies in front of gate, but no lines. It was just past noon.

I arrived a little before the fourth race and noticed was there was already a line out the door from the men's room at the grandstand.

Never saw that before.

I decided then having a beer was out of the question.

As the day wore on and the crowds got bigger, there were fewer stray seats and it was almost impossible to see a race from the upper grand stand.

The lines for the rest rooms grew longer with uncomfortable looking men holding beer cans.

While Saratoga has always been synonymous with blazers, summer dresses and elaborate hats, there was always a place for cutoff shorts and T-shirts.

This was a dressy crowd.

I wore shorts and a nice Hawaiian shirt, but I was starting to feel underdressed.

By late afternoon, walking around Saratoga had become a nightmare. The senses at Saratoga can quickly overwhelm you, but few people seemed to be paying any attention where they were going.

It reminded me of bumper cars.

Just minutes before the Belmont Stakes I got an up close and personal look at the eventual winner Dornoch,, but I did not bet on longshot.

As the big race approached, I made my way into the backyard to see the big horses pass by. There was only one person in front of me and I got a pretty good look at all the entries.

We were packed in tight next to the starting gate for the Belmont Stakes.

For the big race just before 7 p.m. - I don't think I have been at Saratoga that late since I was a sportswriter on Travers Day - I decided to try my luck along the rail right next to the starting gate. I managed to get a spot 10 to 15 people back where we all held our cell phones high in the air to catch the historic moment. I saw the field break from the gate with a tremendous roar from the crowed.

It was the last I saw of the horses.

This was the scene under the grandstand during the running of the Belmont Stakes where you got a clear view of the race on the TV monitors.

I hurried back inside where the under the grandstand it was mostly empty with a just few staring at the video feed from the action on the track just behind us.

My plan was to bolt as soon as possible after the race, but damn my luck, I had to cash in a ticket on the second-place horse.

It was a great day at Saratoga.

It seemed like most of Saratoga had the same idea.

Once outside the gate, I did not see any sign of the trolley and I began to walk.

It was a perfect evening for a walk with all those immaculately dressed peoples as the residents in their friendly front porches took in the parade.

It was a great day at Saratoga.

Different, but lots of energy, lots of excitement.

They reported the crowed was a sellout with 50,000 people on hand. It seemed like more.

It was great to see such energy at the Belmont Stakes.

It was nice, but honestly, I don't like sharing her.

It is happening here

The story is laugh-out-loud absurd, except that it is heart-attack serious.

The New York Times told a story this weekend about a Republican election clerk in rural Nevada who was being accused of helping rig the presidential election in her tiny Nevada town.

It did not matter that she was a fellow Republican.

It did not matter that she voted for Trump.

It did not even matter that 82 percent of the 620 votes cast in Esmeralda County were cast for Trump.

The suspicions of many local residents led to more than 100 of them signing a petition to have Cindy Elgan recalled as election commissioner.

"It was an outcome she’d feared for the last three and a half years, ever since former President Donald J. Trump lost the 2020 election, and his denials and distortions spread outward from the White House to even the country’s most remote places, like Esmeralda County," Eli Saslow wrote in the New York Times story last Friday. "It had neither a stoplight nor a high school, and Elgan knew most of the 620 voters on sight. Trump won the county with 82 percent of the vote despite losing Nevada. In the days after the election, some residents began to suspect that he should have won by even more, and they parroted Trump’s talking points and brought their complaints to the county’s monthly commissioner meetings."

For more than 20 years, Elgan had been overseeing elections in Nevada without incident.

"They falsely claimed the election was stolen by voting software designed in Venezuela, or by election machines made in China. They accused George Soros of manipulating Nevada’s voter rolls. They blamed `undercover activists' for stealing ballots out of machines with hot dog tongs. They blamed the Dominion voting machines that the county had been using without incident for two decades, saying they could be hacked with a ballpoint pen to `flip the vote and swing an entire election in five minutes," Saslow wrote. "They demanded a future in which every vote in Esmeralda County was cast on paper and then counted by hand."

Elgan has patiently explained over and over the safeguards in place to protect the vote. “It’s like talking to that wall right there,” Elgan said in the Times story. “I’ve given them every fact and document known to mankind, and none of it matters. They’re too busy chanting their mantras to stop and listen.”

It has worn Elgan down.

She and her husband have talked about moving to California to be closer to their grandchildren.

This is the greater worry for the next election.

When good people, the experienced local election people who know how to do the job are driven away, what will we have left?

It is a frightening story.

It is a worrisome story.

And I suspect there are many other communities where similar things are happening.

Supreme Court ethics

If you write a book, you should get paid whatever the market will bear for your services.

So it doesn't bother me when Supreme Court justices are given big book deals, although I'm not sure who reads these books.

Last week we learned more about the income and gifts that the justices have declared on financial disclosure forms.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson got nearly $900,000 advance for a book deal.

Justice Neil Gorusch got $250,000.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh got a $340,000 advance.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said she got about $87,000 in royalties for her book.

But Justice Jackson also revealed she received four concert tickets valued at $3,700. I suspect they were good seats. She received another $10,000 worth of  artwork from an artist.

When I was editor at The Post-Star in Glens Falls, N.Y., we put the gifts we received - T-shirts, CDs, books - in a drawer to be auctioned off for charity. We were that concerned about ethics.

So it is hard for me to  understand how members of the Supreme Court, who are supposed to be the final arbiters of the Constitution and our laws, can morally accept concert tickets and lavish vacations worth thousands of dollars.

All this information came on the latest financial disclosure forms from the Supreme Court justices. Only Justice Samuel Alito asked for an extension. Apparently, he was too busy choosing which flag to fly over his house to bother with the paperwork.

The worst abuses were previously reported about Justice Clarence Thomas by ProPublica.

Thomas finally got around to disclosing two paid trips from a billionaire buddy who coincidentally was a big conservative. Thomas said he inadvertently omitted the trips. When you forget about the free trip to Bali where you island-hopped aboard a super yacht, it is time to get your memory tested.

Chapman walking tour

The Chapman Museum will be hosting another walking tour on Friday at 11 a.m.

The walk will start at St. Mary's Church and proceed up Warren Street to the Hyde Collection before returning on the other side of the street while exploring the rich history of the neighborhood. I took this tour last year and there are some wonderful stories.

  Participants are urged to park behind St. Mary's Church and meet in front of the church.

Tours cost $15 for non-members and $10 for members. Reservations are needed by calling 518 793-2826.

Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.