By Dan Murphy
We recently received a letter to the editor from one of our readers regarding early voting, which recently passed the State Legislature and was signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo as part of a package of election reforms.
“The sweeping program of voting reforms passed into law at the beginning of the 2019 legislative session in New York is a promise. The promise is access to polls for all citizens whose obligations prevent Election Day participation. The result, we hope, will be greater participation in the political process by citizens, resulting in a more fully representative government,” wrote Catherine Ray from Ossining.
“Voters in New York will now join those in 37 other states who, like those other 21st century citizens, are allowed to vote at more than one place on more than one day. The law guarantees that every New York voter will be able to cast a ballot during some weekend hours during the two weekends before an election, as well as some daytime and evening hours during the week before Election Day. No longer will so many need to go through the cumbersome process of absentee ballots because obligations keep them from their polling place the second Tuesday of November. Or not vote at all.
“Implementation is extremely demanding, requiring identification of polling places, staffing with trained staff, and ensuring security for polling places, as well as purchase of new machinery. These responsibilities fall on the county Boards of Elections. The state budget offers reimbursement for much of the expense, but the workload is huge.
Last week, State Sen. David Carlucci met with constituents in Ossining to discuss how we all can work together to help fulfill the promise of early voting. We are eager to work with the Westchester Board of Elections at any point in the process of implementing early voting, especially regarding publicizing this great new opportunity for voters to participate in our democracy.” (End of Ray’s letter.)
Some facts that Westchester voters need to know about early voting:
1. Early voting will not begin with the upcoming primaries on June 25.
2. Early voting will begin with the general election Nov. 5.
3. Not every polling place will be open and available for early voting. The Westchester Board of Elections will determine which sites will be open for early voting 10 days prior to the general election, and for two full weekends before the election.
According to the New York State Board of Elections: “By May 1 of each year, the Board of Elections shall designate early voting sites for the general election held in such year. Early voting sites for primaries and special elections shall be designated no later than 45 days before such an election.” So far, the BOE has yet to identify its early voting sites.
The number of early voting sites that a county Board of Elections must have is based on its population. “If the number of voters in the county is equal to or more than 350,000, the county must have at least seven early voting sites,” states the BOE memo on early voting.
While the Westchester BOE must create seven early voting sites in the county, “The Board of Elections may designate more early voting sites than the minimum number required for the convenience of voters.”
The new NYS early voting laws requires that “All sites must be open for voting for the 60 hours required by Election Law § 8-600, but the Board of Elections may expand the hours the early voting sites are open beyond the statutory minimums.” Sixty hours over 10 days is six hours per day, at a minimum.
In a county as geographically large as Westchester, the BOE must determine how many early voting sites are necessary to make the process what it was meant to be – to make it easier for voters to cast their ballots. While several of the locations will be in the county’s large cities, (Yonkers, White Plains, New Rochelle, Mt. Vernon) smaller, Westchester towns and villages will not have the luxury of each having its own early voting location. Therefore, a voter in Harrison might have to drive to Mamaroneck to vote, if they chose to vote early.
Another question that needs to be answered by the Board of Elections is: If additional voting machines are required to be purchased, will they purchase the same optical scan voting machines that we currently use in Westchester?
One way to help save on the additional costs that will be required to give the people of Westchester early voting would be to use the 20 political appointees that were dumped on the Board of Elections in 2017, as former County Executive Rob Astorino left office.
Astorino wanted to “take care of” the county employees in his administration who would be losing their jobs with the new, incoming Latimer administration. In order to get 10 jobs for his people, Astorino and democrats on the County Board agreed to 10 republican hires and 10 democrats at the Board of Elections. None of these hirings were needed or required and were nothing more than political hack jobs. It was also an insult to the thousands of Westchester taxpayers who voted for Astorino to keep their taxes down and reduce spending, to watch him and other fiscally conservative republicans walk into the BOE and take their patronage jobs. Let’s put those people to work, please – real work – and have them sit at the early voting sites throughout the county.
On a more serious note, actor Ben Stiller joined Gov. Andrew Cuomo when he signed early voting into law earlier this year. In addition to early voting, the federal and state primaries were consolidated to one date – this year, June 25 – and young New Yorkers who get their driver’s permit will automatically be registered to vote at age 18.
Stiller said he supported all of these measures and campaigned for State Senate democrats last year because State Senate republicans repeatedly blocked early voting.
“This issue of voting rights is very important for all New Yorkers,” he said. “It’s fundamental to our democracy. These laws are a very important step and are setting an example not just in the state, but for the federal government, as well as to what we should be doing in terms of having people have the access to voting so they can really determine their future.”
