Reform New York’s Elections — Now
VOTING in New York City has been far too hard for far too long.
Tuesday’s midterm election was the last straw. New Yorkers did their jobs. They turned out in record numbers. The poll sites should have been ready. They weren’t.
Machines broke. Backup plans faltered. There weren’t enough folders to keep ballots dry in the rain, or enough booths for people to vote in privacy.
The lines at sites like Brooklyn’s PS 9 and the Ingersoll Houses snaked back for two and three hours — and that was frustratingly common. Hundreds of complaints poured into the state attorney general’s office.
Thousands of New Yorkers left the polls, after hours of waiting, questioning whether their vote had been counted. These mistakes could turn thousands of first-time voters in to last-time voters.
The Board of Elections — which is supposed to organize the vote for New York- ers — is broken. Tuesday was a high-turnout midterm election. In two years we’ll elect the next president. The crowds will be even bigger. And we cannot afford a repeat. We need state legislation that would empower a professional executive director for the board, and break through the status quo.
The city has tried pressuring the BOE to reform for two years. We even offered $20 million in new funding to help it boost voter outreach, hire independent experts and better train workers. The board has so far refused.
The case for the reforms we’re asking to underwrite has only become more urgent — we need action now.
But we cannot lose sight of the larger problems in our state’s democracy that go far beyond just the Board of Elections. Yesterday’s debacle was compounded by the fact that New York’s voting laws are among the most restrictive in the nation.
For years, these laws have been passed in the state Assembly and blocked in the state Senate. This must be the session we break that logjam once and for all in Albany. With the Democrats now in control of the state Legislature, now is the time to act.
If New Yorkers could vote early, like they do in Texas or Florida, we wouldn’t face such a crush at the polls during the 15 hours of voting. We’re one of just 13 states that do not allow some form of early voting. The reform would lower the stakes of a rainstorm or a subway delay costing someone their right to vote.
No-excuse absentee voting would let New Yorkers cast a ballot by mail and know it was counted on election night.
Same-day voter registration and electronic poll books could address the bureaucratic errors in Election Day lists, and prevent such errors from stealing someone’s right to vote.
There are 1.5 million people in this city who are eligible to vote but not registered because the political class has attempted to exclude them consistently for decades.
Every one of these reforms could be taken up this January so we can be better prepared for 2020.
Voting should not be a struggle. To the thousands of New Yorkers who waited hours in the rain to exercise the most fun- damental right in our democracy: You deserve better.
We urge every government official, every good-government group, every civic organization and every editorial board to join us in securing reform.
Tuesday’s long lines are our mandate for change. We have no time to waste.