The New York State Senate election committee may be breaking the mold of cyclical and predictable debate about voting administration and its discontents with a series of public hearings meant to broadly chronicle the experiences and ideas of voters across the state.
The committee is holding four hearings in every corner of the state to give a platform to voters ahead of the traditional post-election oversight hearing where lawmakers interrogate election administrators and experts about how the process went. That hearing is scheduled for late September and will undoubtedly focus on election errors, particularly in New York City, and the rollout of the city s first major ranked-choice voting election in June. The hearings will be led by Senator Zellnor Myrie, a Brooklyn Democrat and the committee chair, who said he wants to use them to inform the best solutions for reform and improvements.
New York Restores Voting Rights For Formerly Incarcerated People
arrow Voting booths, November 2020. Scott Lynch / Gothamist
New York took a major step towards expanding the number of eligible voters in the upcoming primary election when Governor Andrew Cuomo last week signed a bill that restores voting rights for anyone released from prison. If they’re released before May 28th, they could register to vote in the June 22nd primary election.
Since 2018, Cuomo has been using his pardon power to restore voting rights to most people on parole. This new law codifies that rule so that upon release from prison everyone automatically has their voting rights restored and can immediately register.
Why former Rep. Brindisi wants a voting law changed PUBLISHED 4:58 PM ET May. 05, 2021 PUBLISHED 4:58 PM EDT May. 05, 2021
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Last year, Democratic Rep. Anthony Brindisi lost his House seat by a razor-thin margin of just over 100 votes. While the outcome was disappointing, even more ballots were rejected because people voted at the wrong polling site. What was more frustrating to me was knowing there were hundreds of legally registered voters who cast their ballot in my election, but through no fault of their own, never had their vote counted, Brindisi said on Wednesday.
It s known as wrong church, wrong pew voting voters turning out at the wrong polling site, filling out a provisional ballot because they don t appear in the voter rolls, only to have their ballot rejected. Brindisi is backing a change to New York s election laws that would allow these votes to be counted and avoid disqualification.
Lawmakers want to address wrong church, wrong pew voting PUBLISHED 1:22 PM ET May. 03, 2021 PUBLISHED 1:22 PM EDT May. 03, 2021
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Last year, 13,800 voters showed up to the wrong polling place in their county and their ballots were disqualified.
Now, state lawmakers want to do so something to solve the problem known as wrong church, wrong pew voting when filling out an affidavit ballot.
General election data gathered by the group VoteEarlyNY released on Monday found 13,800 ballots were disqualified after voters appeared at the wrong polling site. This translates to a heavy percentage of affidavit ballots being rejected: 32.4% in Erie County, 22.8% in Dutchess County and 21.2% in Ulster County, the group s research found.
Voting rights group: Problems in Brindisi-Tenney House race worse than reported
Updated May 03, 2021;
Posted May 03, 2021
Claudia Tenney debates Anthony Brindisi at a virtual editorial board meeting of syracuse.com/The Post-Standard, Friday Oct. 9, 2020. Tenney, a Republican from New Hartford, won the House race by 109 votes.
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The number of voters who had their ballots disqualified last year in New York’s 22nd Congressional District election is higher than previously disclosed in court, according to data compiled by a voting rights group.
Election officials tossed out the ballots of at least 273 registered voters in the House race between Rep. Claudia Tenney and Anthony Brindisi, simply because those voters showed up at the wrong polling place, the new data shows.