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I'm posting about this because we can all use some good news:
I used to live in New York, and sent some letters and postcards last fall to help flip the state senate, and am very pleased by this package of reforms, which Governor Cuomo has promised to sign. It includes nine days of early voting, preregistration for 16- and 17-year-olds, and federal and state primaries on the same day. (That last should significantly increase turnout for state primary races.) They also gave preliminary approval for no-reason-needed absentee voting and Election Day voter registration--preliminary because, according to the article, that part will require amending the state constitution--and they're considering automatic voter registration.
This isn't perfect: New York election law is baroque, and not by accident. My father was a lawyer, with an arcane and not-very-profitable sideline specialty in election law; he told me that half of the election law cases in the United States were in New York. I don't think this law will change the complexities of the rules for getting on the ballot, but we can hope that's in the pipeline.
I used to live in New York, and sent some letters and postcards last fall to help flip the state senate, and am very pleased by this package of reforms, which Governor Cuomo has promised to sign. It includes nine days of early voting, preregistration for 16- and 17-year-olds, and federal and state primaries on the same day. (That last should significantly increase turnout for state primary races.) They also gave preliminary approval for no-reason-needed absentee voting and Election Day voter registration--preliminary because, according to the article, that part will require amending the state constitution--and they're considering automatic voter registration.
This isn't perfect: New York election law is baroque, and not by accident. My father was a lawyer, with an arcane and not-very-profitable sideline specialty in election law; he told me that half of the election law cases in the United States were in New York. I don't think this law will change the complexities of the rules for getting on the ballot, but we can hope that's in the pipeline.
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