Gotham Gazette

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absentee voting

absentee voting

  • Expansive Vote by Mail Bill Moved Through State Legislature as Session Ended

    Senate Deputy Leader Gianaris at the polls (photo: @SenGianaris)


    In the final days of the 2023 session, the State Legislature passed a last-minute bill to bring a new form of universal mail-in voting to New York, relying on a novel interpretation of the state constitution that has so far required an "excuse" for absentee voting.

    The "New York Early Mail Voter Act" would bring New York as close as possible to universal, no-excuse absentee voting (or its equivalent) without amending the state

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  • Does Voting by Mail in New York Really Require a Constitutional Amendment?

    In the State Senate (photo: Edwin J. Torres/Mayoral Photo Office)


    Does voting by mail in New York really require a constitutional amendment? Our new analysis says it may not. First, our perspectives on this important issue:

    Deborah: I love voting by mail. I can see the ballot in advance, research the candidates and propositions, then cast my ballot without even leaving home; I can check whether my ballot was accepted on the Board of Elections website. Currently,...

  • Absentee Ballot Programs Could Be 'Single Most Important Factor' in High-Profile NY-10 and NY-12 Congressional Races

    Voters on the move (photo: Edwin J. Torres/Mayoral Photo Office)


    There are less than three weeks until primary day, August 23, and the deadline for voters to request an absentee ballot is Monday, August 8. In New York’s 10th and 12th congressional districts, where there are heated Democratic primary contests underway, absentee ballots may play a particularly significant role under the peculiar circumstances of the election.

    “Absentee ballot organizing is likely to be the single most important factor in determining the winner of these races,” Neal Kwatra, founder of Metropolitan Public

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  • No Movement on Failed Voting Amendments After New York Democrats Vowed to Try Again

    Voters at the polls (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    After the stunning defeat of two voting-related state constitutional amendments on the ballot last fall, Democrats vowed to reinitiate the multi-year process this legislative session in Albany. But no state lawmaker appears to have introduced legislation this year to amend the New York constitution to allow for same-day voter registration and universal absentee voting, raising the possibility that they may not act at all.

    Barring a

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  • An Initial Look at Voter Turnout in the 2021 New York City Primaries

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    New York City voters voting (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Nearly 1 million New York City voters cast ballots in the mayoral primaries last month, according to unofficial results released by the New York City Board of Elections, marking the city's most participated-in local election in decades. While still low by historical standards, the turnout dwarfed the 2013 primaries -- the last mayoral race to have both Democratic and Republican primaries and no incumbent running -- by roughly 245,000 votes.

    Combined Democratic and

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  • Board of Elections Admits No Quality Control Ahead of 2020 Absentee Ballot Blunder

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    Six months after up to 100,000 Brooklyn voters received misprinted and disqualifying absentee ballots for the 2020 presidential election, the New York City Board of Elections (BOE) admitted it did not send its own staff to do quality inspections at absentee ballot vendor sites to ensure they would be able to meet the requirements of their contracts for the general election last year. It is unclear if the lack of oversight enabled the mistake but, according to the BOE, the vendor bore the costs of redistributing corrected ballots.

    The revelation comes as the embattled

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  • New York City Sees First-Ever Balance Among Early, Absentee & Election Day Voting

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    Voting in NYC in a pandemic (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    The first presidential election in New York City to have both early and universal mail-in voting showed a significant portion of the electorate taking advantage of each of the new voting methods.

    Across the city, roughly 42% of those who voted cast ballots in-person on Election Day, while 37% voted at an early voting site, and 22% mailed in ballots, according to the New York City Campaign Finance Board. At ...

  • Brooklyn, Staten Island Democrats Look to Absentee Ballots to Help Them Hold Their Seats

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    Several local races hing on absentee ballots (photo: @JustinBrannan)


    As New York election officials begin counting absentee ballots from the general election, there are dozens of races that have yet to be decided. Based on the in-person tallies, Democrats in several state and congressional races are currently running behind Republicans and are hoping that absentees will deliver them victories. But in three races in overlapping districts in Southern Brooklyn and Staten Island, areas home to more Republican voters than most other parts of the heavily Democratic city, absentees

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  • Absentee Voters Must Now Be Allowed to 'Cure' Their Ballots Under Certain Circumstances; Here's How It's Supposed to Work

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    Make sure to sign your ballot (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    Among a package of changes to New York state election law passed since the chaotic June primaries is a provision that requires the Board of Elections to notify voters when their absentee ballots are on the verge of being thrown out and give them a chance to correct certain potential disqualifications. Designed to ensure possibly tens of thousands of intended votes are actually counted, the “curing” mandate applies to a handful of often disenfranchising technicalities, but the newborn steps may add a

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  • 51,000 Workers at 1,200 Sites: Board of Elections Scrambles to Prepare for General Election

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    Council Member Laurie Cumbo at an election promotion event (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    An October 5 staffing report from the New York City Board of Elections (BOE) to state regulators shows a scramble to prepare for the general election less than a month before Election Day.

    The BOE was over a month late to submit the plan, which was required by Governor Andrew Cuomo through executive order to ensure local election administrators had the necessary

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  • When Can New Yorkers Expect General Election Results? City and State Officials Give Different Answers

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    New Yorkers soon head to the polls (photo: Edwin J. Torres/Mayoral Photo Office)


    The 2020 general election results in New York City may not be known until mid-December, six weeks after Election Day, according to Michael Ryan, the executive director of the New York City Board of Elections.

    Ryan told members of the New York City Council Friday that New Yorkers could expect election results between December 8 and 15, around the same length of time it took in the primaries but ages beyond the unofficial results New Yorkers have come to expect on election

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  • Sign By the Red X: New York Election Officials Unveil New Envelope to Ensure More Absentee Votes Get Counted

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    Part of the new absentee ballot envelope design


    The New York State Board of Elections has approved a new design for absentee ballot envelopes to be used statewide in the upcoming general election. The new layout, mandated by Governor Andrew Cuomo in an executive order, is intended to make it more obvious where a voter needs to provide a signature in order to have the ballot accepted by elections administrators under state law and avoid mass disqualification of absentee ballots as New York saw during the June primaries.

    The

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  • Can New York Officials Deliver November Election Results in a Timely Fashion?

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    "Every Vote Counts" (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography)


    While New Yorkers have come to expect challenges in the voting process, they’ve also come to expect "unofficial election night results" rolling in in the hours after polls close -- a tradition that sometimes entails staying up late to find out the winner of a close race, or waking up the next day to a new leader-elect who had been only a hopeful when voters went to the polls.

    But with the unprecedented volume of mail-in ballots for the June primary this year, some races took

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  • As New York Looks for Smoother General Election, Long List of Voting Reform Bills Awaits Governor’s Signature or Legislative Action

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    Inspecting voting equipment (photo: Senator Michael Gianaris)


    The June 2020 primaries in New York were an unusually thick morass of bureaucratic challenges as the city and state election systems shifted to a mostly-mail-in format amidst the coronavirus outbreak.

    In New York City more than 80,000 mail-in ballots were disqualified on technical grounds -- a full fifth of the 400,000-plus ballots cast that way and a tenth of the total. Tens of thousands of ballots were either sent out late by the New York City Board of Elections or never delivered to voters who

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  • No, Trump Can’t Postpone the Election, But Congress Needs to Fund It

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    Electors to the Electoral College voting in Albany (photo: governor's office)


    This guest column is part of Citizens Union Speakers, a regular series of op-eds written by members of the

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  • New York City Mandated an Absentee Ballot Tracking System; The Board of Elections Never Implemented It

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    Voting absentee (photo: @HelenRosenthal)


    A law passed by the New York City Council in 2016 could have helped prevent some of the many problems plaguing the absentee ballot process from the June 2020 primary elections. But that law was never implemented by the New York City Board of Elections, a quasi-state agency that routinely refuses to abide by local mandates.

    The June primaries saw a record number of absentee ballots cast by voters, facilitated by an executive order from Governor Andrew Cuomo that mandated that local boards of

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  • We Should Never Have to Choose Between Life and Democracy

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    In-person voting during a pandemic (photo: Gotham Gazette)


    We should never have to decide between public health and democracy. We must have both.

    We hoped that voter suppression was a thing of the past, and yet it is still present not just in the South but in the South Bronx and across the country.

    We are witnessing a public health and democratic crisis that must be addressed immediately—otherwise, lives will be taken as electoral gains are also stolen.  

    In short, the coronavirus crisis has cast a light on the deteriorating health of

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  • Push Is On for 10 Bills to Strengthen Absentee Voting and More Ahead of Fall Election

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    Voting during a pandemic (photo: @NYCVotes)


    Ahead of a special state legislative session set for next week, a coalition of election reform advocates is backing ten bills that would change or codify elements of the now widely-used absentee voting process before the fall general election.

    The agenda, released Thursday by the Let NY Vote coalition, comes amid party primary elections where the voting is over but the counting

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  • Voters Should Be Able to Track Their Absentee Ballots, Lawmakers Say

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    Voting has changed dramatically in New York (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of the Governor)


    As hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots are being counted more than two weeks after the June 23 primary elections, state lawmakers are pushing a bill that would allow absentee voters to track their ballots and would require election administrators to provide an individual explanation when a ballot is disqualified.

    The latest effort to pass the legislation, which was first introduced in 2013, comes amid an unprecedented increase in absentee voting due to

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  • With Distributed Absentee Ballots Vastly Outnumbering In-Person Vote, Impact of Mail-In Ballots Could Be Dramatic

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    The absentee vote could trump the in-person vote (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    The New York City Board of Elections is reporting that over 765,000 absentee ballots were distributed to voters before primary day, June 23, vastly exceeding a tally of in-person votes in the Democratic presidential primary, which came to 471,000, with 96% of election precincts reporting.

    The number of absentee ballots returned is not

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  • Voting Absentee is Complicated; How to Make Sure Your Vote Counts

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    Absentee voting is complicatd (image via @kimmosc)


    NOTE - 10/16/2020: You likely arrived here looking for information about absentee voting in the 2020 general election in New York. The article further down below was originally published before the June primaries, but we’ve added an update here at the top  - some of the steps are the same but there are several important changes to be aware of:

    All

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  • What New York City Voters Need to Know About the June Primary Elections

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    What voters need to know to vote in June (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    The images of Wisconsin voters standing in line last month starkly illustrated how COVID-19 has triggered a health emergency for our democracy. Here in New York, elections have been postponed or canceled in response to the pandemic. We are taking the first steps towards voting in a new way, via mail-in absentee ballots. With all of these rapid changes, it is no wonder voters are confused about what steps they can take to cast a vote safely and help maintain the

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  • Cuomo Orders All Voters Get Absentee Ballot Applications and Polls Open for June Elections, While Presidential Primary Canceled

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    All voters will get an absentee application for the June elections (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)


    Governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday, April 24 signed an executive order mandating that the State Board of Elections send every registered voter in the state an absentee ballot application with paid postage to facilitate voting in elections slated for June 23 without increasing the risk of

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  • Questions and Concerns About Potential Shift to Vote-By-Mail as New Yorkers Await Further Action from Cuomo

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    Voting in New York is undergoing major shifts, with more possibly to come (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    Amid reports that Governor Andrew Cuomo plans to allow or require voting by mail for all New Yorkers in primary and special elections set for June 23, government reform advocates have raised concerns that the measure could end up adversely affecting the election, while the State Republican Party has promised to sue if the governor follows through.

    The coronavirus pandemic has forced several delays in the state’s election calendar and in-person voting

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  • Cuomo Announces Absentee Voting for All in June; What to Know

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    Gov. Cuomo votes, in person (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)


    Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Wednesday that he will use his executive authority to allow all New Yorkers to vote by absentee ballot for the June 23 elections, to prevent long lines at the polls that could put people at risk of being exposed to the coronavirus. Elections that day will include party primaries for many seats and special elections open to all voters within the relevant districts.

    “I've seen lines of people on television voting in other states.

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