By Dan Murphy
The next time New Yorkers will vote in large numbers will be on June 23. That is the date for all primaries this year, for county, state and federal offices. If you received a postcard in the mail from your Board of Elections saying that the presidential primary was on April 28, that date has since been changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic to June 23.
Even though Senator Bernie Sanders official suspended his Presidential campaign, his name will still be on the ballot for the NY Democratic Primary, along with Joe Biden, and a few Presidential candidates who got out a while ago, like Mike Bloomberg and Pete Buttigieg. There is no republican presidential primary, nobody collected enough signatures to challenge President Donald Trump.
But there are a few important democratic primaries here in Westchester, including two for Congress, to replace Nita Lowey in mid-northern Westchester, and for several challengers to Eliot Engel, in mid-lower Westchester. Countywide-there is a democratic primary for District Attorney between Mimi Rocah and Anthony Scarpino, and for Supreme Court Judge –leave a line.
So if you are a Westchester democrat, there are reasons for you to go to the polls on June 23. However, in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic, there are very few of us who want to wait in line to cast our vote. Many of us would be willing to vote by mail, or vote electronically or by phone, if it were logistically possible.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced an Executive Order to allow all voters to request an absentee ballot by reason of the COVID-19 crisis. In addition, the request may be made online or by phone for an absentee ballot. “I’ve seen lines of people on television voting in other states. This is totally nonsensical. All New Yorkers can vote absentee on June 23.
But in order to receive an absentee ballot to vote on June 23, voters must request one through their county Board of Elections. Only then will voters be mailed a ballot, which they will then have to return by mail to the BOE.
Some New Yorkers were hoping that the state would mail out ballots to every primary voter before June 23. But that possibility was met with logistical problems, including having your local BOE print, mail and then count the ballots mailed back to the.
Another issue was having to print multiple ballots for some democratic voters, for Federal offices, President and Congress, and another ballot for county and staff offices, Judge and District Attorney. That would require a voter to properly fill out and mail back 2 ballots.
Low turnout was expected for many primaries, and now that Sanders is not actively campaigning for President, even lower voter turnout is anticipating, especially with an absentee ballot requirement.
The more important election will be on November 4, when New Yorkers will vote for President, Congress, and state and county offices. Requiring New Yorkers to request an absentee ballot may not work in a Presidential year, which has many election experts across the country considering a mail in ballot, or electronic ballot of some type.
Former US Senator Bob Kerrey, appearing on CNN last week, said that during the virus crisis, Americans need an alternative way to vote. Kerrey said that new technologies, like voting by phone through texting or on computer, need to be considered and demonstrated to see if they can work in time for November.
Kerrey spoke about the Mobile Voting Project, mobilevoting.org, which is testing the use of voting by phone and at home voting in small, local elections across the county to determine if they can be used on a larger scale. Kerrey, who served as a US Senator from Nebraska and as President of xx college in NYC, asked us to look ahead to November.
“In November, there will still be Americans with undiagnosed COVID-19. And if you are standing in line waiting to vote, a fraction of those voters will have the virus. Do you want to get infected when you vote?” asked Kerrey, who added, “The virus, gives us the opportunity to change things and improve them. Technology enables us to have a much more reliable way to conduct an election.”
One question that I have, and most of us have, about electronic voting, is what if the Russians, of someone else, hacks an electronic election, and especially a Presidential election? Kerrey said that all elections have fraud in them, but that electronic voting could have less fraud. “Our country does millions of secure phone calls through the intelligence services without hacking.”
Kerrey also said that voting by mail, which has been suggested by US Senator Amy Klobuchar and others, “is like using 19th century technology. Let’s see if we can use 21st Century technology and find out if we can vote by SMS-phone text, or by a computer vote. We are going to need to use remote voting at the democratic convention and in Congress. I think the experts will tell you that we can do this.”
President Trump has said that voting by mail is not a good idea. “They cheat, is dangerous and its fraudulent,” said the President, echoing the sentiment of many republicans who, in the past, have not wanted to make it easier for Americans to vote for fear that more democrats will vote.
So while it seems that the only way all of us can vote by mail on June 23 is to request an absentee ballot, I’m more concerned about my vote for President on November 4. I have not missed a Presidential election since I turned 18, and with my daughter about to cast her first vote for President this fall, I want us both to be able to vote in a safe and secure way…from home.
