Since Democrats took control of the State Senate in 2018, the members of the majority have made election reform central to their agenda, passing a series of changes during the first week of the 2019 session, including early voting. Now, as voters continue to await results from primary contests across the city, wondering whether their absentee ballot will get discarded, lawmakers are back this week in Albany where they are expected to move a handful of bills aimed at preventing a repeat of some of this summer’s chaos come November.
“What we witnessed in the primary and the continued counting and what may be the discarding of thousands of ballots is a form of disenfranchisement that we are not comfortable with,” said State Senator Zellnor Myrie of Brooklyn and chair of the Senate Elections Committee. “As a body, we thought that it was important for us to respond this week with a number of proposals that we hope will give voters an opportunity to have their fundamental right to vote affirmed.”
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One change the legislature is considering would require Boards of Elections to create a process that allows voters to fix technical errors which might otherwise invalidate their absentee ballot. The bill would require the Board of Elections to notify a voter one business day after discovering a problem with their ballot—like a missing signature—and give the voter a chance to correct the mistake.
While the Board of Elections has not yet provided any data on the number of absentee ballots that have been invalidated, or the reasons for their invalidation, observers from various campaigns have reported that upwards of 20 percent of absentee ballots are being invalidated. Missing signatures are the leading cause, while other ballots were tossed for a missing signature or postmark problem.
The matter of invalidated ballots is currently subject to a federal lawsuit filed by the League of Women Voters against the State Board of Elections.
Despite problems with the absentee ballot system, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is spurring efforts to ensure voters can rely on mail-in voting in the general election. State Senator Alessandra Biaggi of the Bronx has been carrying a bill since March that would ensure that voters could continue to use this option to avoid crowds in what’s expected to be a large turnout election.
“We've got to make sure that New Yorkers and the Board of Elections, especially, have clarity now on how voters will be able to safely cast their ballots in November so the BOE can start preparing as soon as possible,” Biaggi told Gothamist/WNYC.
Voting reform advocates say the proposal would enable the Boards to ramp up their absentee ballot systems with more time.
“We are thrilled to see that bill is moving—and it was not a foregone conclusion,” said Susan Lerner, head of Common Cause New York and the Let New York Vote Coalition. “It is very much a credit to the legislature that they understood the urgency of clarifying access to absentee ballots in the fall.”
Another marquee change that’s poised to pass the legislature is a bill that would institute automatic voter registration. A similar bill was set to pass last year, but fumbled in the final days of session due to a typo.
Under the current automatic voter registration proposal, sponsored by Deputy Senate Majority Leader Mike Gianaris and Assemblymember Latrice Walker, a person who seeks services, including a name or address change, from half a dozen state and city agencies would be automatically registered to vote unless they choose to opt out.
The agencies include the Department of Motor Vehicles, Department of Health, the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance; Department of Labor; Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities; County and City Departments of Social Services, and the New York City Housing Authority. Voters would have the ability to opt out if they choose. The legislation would not take effect until January 2023.
To address the issue of missing postmarks on absentee ballots, which is also currently subject to a federal lawsuit, lawmakers are pushing a decidedly modest proposal. Under the bill, also sponsored by Sen. Gianaris and Brooklyn Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte, also head of the Kings County Democrats, the Board of Elections would be directed to count absentee ballots that arrive at the Board of Elections up until one day after the election, even if they are missing a postmark
Even before candidates and more than a dozen voters sued over votes being tossed out for missing postmarks, Bichotte told Gothamist/WNYC that she knew of at least a “few thousand” ballots that the Brooklyn Board of Elections office received without them. Bichotte also has signed onto a more expansive piece of legislation, sponsored by Senator Myrie, that would more closely align with election law, allowing Boards of Elections to accept absentee ballots received up to seven days after an election, even if the postmark is missing or illegible.
Bichotte said she thought the seven-day bill was unlikely to move, “but we needed to do something,” which is why she is sponsoring the version that would give voters an extra day.
Perry Grossman, an attorney with the New York Civil Liberties Union, called the postmark change a step in the right direction, but stressed how much further other states go to protect voters
“Even even in regular times, California allows three days for ballots with no postmarks to be counted,” said Grossman, who noted that in the upcoming November election, California will count absentee ballots, even without a postmark, that arrive 17 days after the election. “There's no reason New York shouldn't allow at least three days for ballots with no postmarks to be counted,” he added.
During a briefing with reporters on Tuesday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo gave the green light to lawmakers to tackle the kind of problems that plagued the June primary. On whether Boards of Elections can accept ballots after the postmark date set in election law, Cuomo insisted the legislature would need to make the change.
“They've heard this issue. If they change the date, and I can understand the rationale for changing the date, if they do that, that would be fine,” he said. “But we are studying what happened from a system-wide point of view and any reforms we can make for November, we will.”
