Photo Courtesy of Edwin Torres/Mayoral Photography Office
The mayor last week also helped Brooklyn students and community residents register to vote.
By Forum Staff
Mayor Bill de Blasio recently called on the State Legislature to pass a package of reforms that, as he said, “would make New York’s voting process fairer and more open.”
By removing barriers to absentee and early voting, cutting down lines at the polls, making registration and voting easier and more streamlined, lawmakers can ensure that every New Yorkers’ vote counts and stop preventing voters from casting their ballot due to unavoidable employment, healthcare or family responsibilities, the mayor added.
“Conducting free and fair elections is a sacred duty of government, yet in New York State, the way we hold elections is outdated, underfunded and seems designed to discourage participation,” de Blasio said last Thursday. “We’re here to say that in New York City we’re fighting for every voice to be heard. While we push to register as many New Yorkers as possible before tomorrow’s voter registration deadline, we need to make our call loud and clear: our system needs to be fairer and more open if we want our democracy to be a representative one.”
The reforms that de Blasio has asked Albany to pass include:
Allow Same-Day Voter Registration
- This legislation would remove the requirement in the State Constitution that mandates voter registration no later than 10 days before Election Day.
- This reform would allow eligible voters to register on Election Day, ensuring more voices are heard at the polls, de Blasio said.
- Thirteen states and the District of Columbia have same-day voter registration.
Early Voting Measures
- Thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia provide for in-person early voting or mail-in voting. New York State does not, Hizzoner noted.
- Legislation should be passed to allow New York to employ methods of early voting including vote by mail, “no-excuse” absentee voting and early in-person voting, de Blasio said.
“No Excuse” Absentee Voting
- Currently, in order to vote absentee in New York, a voter must have one of several permissible reasons, such as being out of New York City on Election Day, temporary illness or disability.
- This proposal would remove all of the conditions precedent for absentee ballots and allow voters to request an absentee ballot as an alternative to in-person voting.
Electronic Poll Books
- This legislation would authorize the use of electronic poll books to ease the voting process and mitigate the issue of long waits at voting sites.
- Thirty-two states and the District of Columbia already use electronic poll books.
Consolidation of Primary Elections
- This legislation would consolidate all of the primary elections into one day, making it easier and more streamlined for New York residents to vote in primary elections, de Blasio said.
- This legislation would amend the federal Military Overseas Voter Empowerment Act, which currently requires the State to conduct two primary elections, or three in presidential years. This is very costly to local boards of election as well as confusing and burdensome to voters, the mayor noted.
Ballot Usability
- Reformatting the way ballots are laid out – including font size, placement of instructions, placement of candidate names – can make them more legible and user-friendly for voters.
- This legislation would make it easier to read a ballot and reduce errors in voting.
Pre-registration of 16- and 17-year-olds
- This proposal would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote, including in schools at the time that students register for class selection each year. The pre-registration would be optional.
- Once registered, the Board of Elections shall maintain registration on file and registration shall automatically become active when the individual turns 18 years of age.
Last week, de Blasio also called for the federal government to clear the large backlog of pending naturalization applications.
Backlog
- There are currently more than 57,000 pending applications in the New York and Queens U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services service centers, and more than half a million nationwide, according to the mayor. Many immigrants who applied for citizenship months ago will be unable to register to vote without swift federal action, he added.
- The de Blasio administration calls on the federal government to process pending applications as quickly as possible to ensure that immigrant New Yorkers are able to vote.
Two-week extension for recent citizens
- Immigrants who naturalize after the Oct. 14 voter registration deadline can still register to vote in the Nov. 8 election. These new citizens must register in person at their borough’s Board of Elections office no later than Oct. 29.
This year, according to de Blasio, the City has increased accessibility to voter registration for citizens with limited English proficiency by providing translated versions of the voter registration form in 11 new languages at nyccfb.info. In addition to the four translations that were already available – Spanish, Chinese, Korean, and Bengali – the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, the Mayor’s Office of Operations, and the Campaign Finance Board have now provided translations in Russian, Haitian Creole, Arabic, French, Urdu, Albanian, Greek, Tagalog, Yiddish, Polish, and Italian. These efforts, the mayor noted, ensure that more than 90 percent of limited English proficient eligible voters in the five boroughs are able to register on a form in their language.
