After years and years of waiting, New York State is finally entering the era of early voting. Starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday, October 26, registered voters will be able to cast their ballots ahead of Election Day on November 5th. So let's go over the details once again, especially the ballot questions. (And if you've voted early and want to share your thoughts, fill out our survey!)
Early voting is from October 26 through November 3
There are (only) 61 early voting locations across New York City, which means your early voting location is most likely not your usual voting location. Look up your polling site here!
Wait, why are we voting early again?
As voters feel more motivated to hit the polls, voting sites have been feeling the pain. During the 2018 primary, huge turnout led to loads of confusion (and lines... so many lines). There was chaos during the 2018 general election, thanks to a two-page ballot that couldn't be fed into scanners because of humidity or something.
In January 2019, Albany legislators passed a voting reform package that including early voting plus same-day voter registration and the consolidation of state and local primaries.
"It's going to be an entirely different experience to go on a day that works for you without massive crowds and have choice in when it fits your schedule," Mayor Bill de Blasio said on The Brian Lehrer Show on Friday morning. "This is something we've been waiting for for a long, long time."
Good-bye, old manual ledgers
The New York City Board of Elections bought 10,000 iPads to replace the old manual ledgers that acted as poll books in hopes this will also speed up the process for voters. As we reported earlier this week, "Instead of thumbing through massive ledgers to find each voter’s name as required in years past, poll workers will type in a voter’s name on an iPad to pull up their registration information digitally and then have them sign the tablet. If you remember to bring your voter identification card mailed to you by the board, you can scan it to pull up your information automatically."
If you don't have a voter identification card, don't worry! Poll workers can still look you up on the iPad.
Besides voting for the NYC Public Advocate (or, for Queens voters, District Attorney) the biggest thing on the ballot for New York City residents are THE BALLOT QUESTIONS:
The city charter is, as we've explained before, essentially our constitution. The charter "establishes New York City... as a single municipal entity according to New York State law," and "enumerates the powers of the city’s elected officials, and sets the rules for our elections and how we vote, how we can spend our tax revenue, and what elected positions should represent us."
In order to change anything with the charter, though, the voters have to decide. This year, there are five questions for voters to vote yes or no—each question has a number of proposals, which might make it seem confusing. Please read our guide to the ballot questions, which cover:
- Elections (like bringing ranked-choice voting to New York);
- Police accountability and the Civilian Complaint Review Board (like requiring more transparency from the Police Commissioner regarding police discipline and allowing the CCRB the ability to more broadly investigate cases of police misconduct);
- Ethics and governance (like lobbying reform);
- City budget (like having a rainy day fund in case of a financial crisis); and
- Land use (basically giving more time and information to Borough President and community boards).
Your vote counts even if you vote for only one ballot question, so don't worry if you feel comfortable voting for some questions and not others.
Why are some schools mad about early voting?
Of the 61 early voting sites in NYC, 33 are in public schools. Those public school principals only found out their facilities would be use for early voting on October 5, which means that students will be displaced from cafeterias, gymnasiums, and even play yards in some cases for 11 days (all 10 early voting days plus the set-up day). A principal of a Brooklyn school told us, "As a citizen of New York City, I didn’t even know there was such a thing as early voting—which I’m excited about. As a principal, it poses a lot of logistical problems that I gotta go figure out right now." They added, "I can’t not have kids [in the gym] for a week in October. That’s crazy."
For parents at one Manhattan school who are worried about security (public schools require people to sign in with IDs; voters do not need IDs to cast ballots), they want the NYC BOE to change how it selects sites. "Nobody wants to push the BOE to get rid of early voting entirely,” said PS 1116 PTA co-president Erica Rand Silverman said. “We don't want this to be an excuse for them to say, ‘That's it, we can't do early voting here, it's not working.’ What we want is for them to select sites responsibly." (The NYC BOE says that the Department of Education knew at least 23 of the early voting sites in the spring.)
Do I get swag for voting early?
Based on the preview, there are some "I Voted Early" bracelets.
There's no subway-themed "I Voted" sticker, though.
Where can I share my experience with early voting?
So glad you asked! Gothamist and WNYC would love to hear about how you participated in democracy—if you have a moment, please fill out our survey.
