(photo: governor's office)

December 4, 2019 - Max & Murphy Podcast: State Campaign Finance Reform Takes Shape, with Threat to Minor Parties

Jay Jacobs, chair of the New York Democratic Party and a Governor Cuomo-appointed member of the state campaign finance commission that just finished its work, and Jessica Wisneski of Citizen Action NY and the Working Families Party joined the show to discuss the commission's binding and controversial work, including historic campaign finance reforms and new rules around political party ballot access.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think -- we're on Twitter @TweetBenMax and @JarrettMurphy. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts, under "Max & Murphy," and listen to Max & Murphy live on Wednesdays at 5 p.m. on WBAI radio, 99.5FM or wbai.org.

(photo: Bard Prison Initiative)

In February 2014, early in his first reelection year, Governor Andrew Cuomo made what proved to be a bold proposal to reduce recidivism by creating opportunities for higher education in state prisons, seizing on an enduring problem at the intersection of social and criminal justice reform efforts. But he had misjudged the political landscape and the announcement was met with significant backlash followed by an uncharacteristic reversal for the seasoned New York powerbroker.

It took nearly four more years, and litigation with the world’s largest banking institutions, before a similar plan was recrafted and set in motion again. Two years into the rebooted plan, the state’s College-in-Prison Reentry Program has served 506 incarcerated students. Sixty-two of those students completed a degree behind bars before being released.

It was a cold Sunday morning in 2014 when Cuomo, then a first-term Democrat, was flanked by clergy and a smattering of elected officials as he announced a plan to provide state funding to college programs in 10 New York State prisons, an approach he said would cut recidivism and save taxpayer money. He was speaking at an event hosted by the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic, and Asian Legislative Caucus of the State Legislature at Wilborn Temple, a black Pentecostal church near the State Capitol in Albany.

“In this great state of New York, this laboratory of democracy, this progressive capital of the country, there is nothing that we can’t do when we’re willing to work together,” he said to fanfare at the end of a speech that tied together employment, education, and incarceration while invoking familiar themes from the Civil Rights Movement and the New Testament.

But by the time the state budget was passed six weeks later, Cuomo had pulled the idea in the face of intense criticism from conservatives, including his Republican challenger Rob Astorino, who said the state should not be funding college for convicted criminals while law-abiding students struggle with the rising costs of higher education.

It wasn’t until August 2017 that the governor launched a second attempt, this time in partnership with Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, announcing a five-year $7.3 million initiative to fund higher education programs in prisons using money raised not through taxes, but through criminal asset forfeitures. The money was handed over by banks as part of settlements in the wake of the financial crisis late last decade, and is controlled by Vance’s office, which now oversees the college-in-prison program, run by the CUNY Institute of State and Local Governance.

The largest of the state’s prison-based college programs, the Bard Prison Initiative, is now the subject of a heralded four-part documentary series, “College Behind Bars,” which first aired Monday, November 25, to praise from many advocates and elected officials across the country.

First announced as part of Cuomo’s State of the State agenda in 2016, the College-in-Prison Reentry Program is intended to help standardize and provide consistent funding for college programs operating in state prisons, which lost their main sources of public financing when state and federal grant programs were peeled back in the mid-nineties. To date, no state budget funds have been allocated to the program, a spokesperson for the state Division of the Budget told Gotham Gazette.

Despite the controversy around the program’s inception, prison reformers, elected officials, graduates of the offerings, and the new PBS series are attempting to show the value of higher education in prisons -- both for incarcerated people on the threshold of reentry to the larger society, and for state coffers.

“Going to the college courses, interacting with the professors, engaging theories and texts that I would have never come across in the life I was living beforehand made me want to be a better person and made me want to go back to my community and become an asset and not a liability,” said George Chochos, a BA-recipient through the Bard Prison Initiative, which offers courses in six state correctional facilities and is now partially funded through asset forfeitures.

“It provided hope in a hopeless situation,” he told Gotham Gazette by phone after work Wednesday evening. Chochos is the assistant director of program management at the Georgetown University Pivot Program, a business certificate program for formerly incarcerated individuals. “It’s one of the few things inside of a prison that allows you to break away from the monotony of the prison system, to where your identity is a student not a number,” he said.

The College-in-Prison Reentry Program is available to students regardless of the crime they were convicted of, requiring only that they have fewer than five years remaining in their sentences, according to Danny Frost, Vance’s director of communications. Seven colleges and universities were selected to receive funding through the program to deliver courses and reentry services at 17 New York State correctional facilities.

It is intended to create 2,500 seats in prison-based college over five years. Two years into the project, nearly $2.8 million has been paid out to the schools and the CUNY Institute of State and Local Governance for program evaluation and support.

In a speech last fall, Vance said “the program is tailored by design to cover New Yorkers who are on that reentry journey -- who in just a few years will be expected to compete in a labor market with community members who were not incarcerated.”

Studies have shown that higher education in prison can significantly reduce recidivism rates and leads to better outcomes for people exiting prison, including in terms of employment. But it has faced a rocky history in New York State and nationally, where critics say it rewards criminal behavior in a system created to penalize it.

“I’ve been incarcerated for 13 years, and from my experience I can tell you prison is here to punish us, it’s here to warehouse us. But it’s not about rehabilitating, it’s not about creating productive beings, it just isn’t,” said Rodney Spivey-Jones, a BA student in the Bard Prison Initiative, in the first episode of College Behind Bars, which is directed by Lynn Novick.

The Bard Prison Initiative, launched in 2001 by Bard College, is the largest recipient of College-in-Prison Reentry funding at $1.3 million over the five year period (2017-2022). It became internationally famous in 2015, when the BPI debate team at Eastern New York Correctional Facility beat Harvard’s.

The six other schools receiving grants through the program are Jefferson Community College, Medaille College, Mercy College, Mohawk Valley Community College, New York University, and Cornell University in partnership with Cayuga Community College. To receive the money, the schools must be able to match the grants with other funding sources like charitable foundations or federal grants.

Each school offers different courses and degrees in line with the curriculum standards offered on their main campuses. Five offer associate’s degree programs and two offer bachelor’s degrees. They provide between 1 and 10 courses per semester, with most offering more than six.

College programs have been operating in New York State prisons since 1876, but they received a boon in the mid-twentieth century through post-World War II charitable initiatives and federal funding like the GI Bill, according to a report from John Jay College’s Prisoner Reentry Institute. In the mid-1970s, the establishment of federal Pell grants and the state’s Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) for low-income students allowed prison-based college programs to significantly expand. Nationwide, the number of programs exploded from from 12 in 1965 to nearly 350 in 1994, the report says.

But in 1994, the funding rapidly dried up. That year Congress passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (often referred to as the 1994 crime bill), which barred Pell grants from going to incarcerated students. The following year the New York State Legislature rescinded TAP for students in state prisons. The results were dramatic: in the spring of 1995, 25 college-in-prison programs served 3,445 students in New York; a year later, only 256 students were being served in four prison-based programs across the state, according to the John Jay report.

Since then, higher education in New York State prisons has relied mostly on private funding. In 2015, the Obama administration launched the Second Chance Pell pilot program, which allow Pell grants to be distributed for prison-based programs to test their impact on post-release outcomes. A number of the schools participating in the College-in-Prison Reentry Program have used the pilot to match grants from the Manhattan District Attorney, according to Vance’s office. In May, the federal Department of Education under Secretary Betsy DeVos announced the Second Chance Pell pilot would be expanded.

As of November 26, 44,710 individuals were incarcerated across the state’s 52 prisons, operated by the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS), according to a department spokesperson. At the beginning of the month, 1,580 of those individuals were enrolled in college programs in 29 facilities, DOCCS representatives said.

When the College-in-Prison Reentry Program was launched in 2017, there were just over 1,000 students already in prison-based college programs, according to a press release announcing the program.

Providing access to higher education in prisons has for decades been a contentious issue in the state, where it is often expressed in political discourse as a trade-off between support for “law-abiding” students struggling to go to college and “criminals” receiving taxpayer benefits.

In 2014, two days after Cuomo first announced a plan to fund prison-based programs with state funds, then-State Senator Mark Grisanti, a Buffalo Republican, released a petition opposing the plan.

"I support rehabilitation and reduced recidivism, but not on the taxpayer's dime when so many individuals and families in New York are struggling to meet the ever-rising costs of higher education," said Grisanti in a press release launching the petition. (Grisanti lost his reelection bid that year and was appointed by Cuomo to the New York State Court of Claims in 2015. He now serves as a state Supreme Court Justice in Erie County.)

Reducing recidivism has always been a focal point of college-in-prison programs, and fewer individuals living in state prisons means taxpayers are spending less on detention. Cuomo, in 2014, said the math favors more prison-based programs, which studies have shown significantly cut recidivism rates for participants. Despite that outlook, he did not put up an aggressive fight for the program when crafting the state budget with legislative leaders that year (at the time, the Assembly was controlled by Democrats, while Republicans controlled the Senate with help from a breakaway group of Democrats).

In 2014, it cost the state $60,000 annually to incarcerate one person and approximately $5,000 to educate them, Cuomo said when announcing the later-abandoned initiative. But supporters say higher education in prison has a good return on investment, both for the individuals served and in terms of recidivism. An oft-cited 2013 RAND Corporation study found that people participating in correctional education programs were 43 percent less likely to return to prison and 13 percent more likely to find employment upon release.

“Providing the opportunity of a college education to the men and women in New York State prisons is a no brainer – it saves the state money in the long run while benefiting our society and those looking to make a better life for themselves and their families,” wrote Caitlin Girouard, a spokesperson for the governor, in an email to Gotham Gazette. “College degrees for people exiting prison provide them with a real chance at getting a job and staying out of the cycle of crime, and we are proud that in New York we’re helping make that a reality.”

The governor’s office did not respond to questions about whether there are plans to expand the initiative, including through the state budget.

The Vera Institute for Justice is expected to release an evaluation of the College-in-Prison Reentry Program in mid-2023, which will analyze recidivism rates for participants, according to a spokesperson for Vance. According to the latest data available to DOCCS, people released from state prisons in 2012 had a 43 percent chance of returning to prison within three years, in most cases for violating parole conditions (since 1996 the recidivism rate has hovered around 40 percent).

A DOCCS representative wrote in an email that recidivism rates could fall to as low as 16 percent for people who have attended college in prison, citing “decades of data.”

“I remember when I first got in, calling my mother and hearing the joy in her voice. Neither of us knew where it would take us,” Chochos said. He was accepted into Bard’s program in 2004 at Eastern New York Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison, four years into his term. He went on to receive an associate’s degree and a bachelor’s in social studies from Bard, and a masters from New York Theological Seminary before being released in 2011.

Since exiting the state prison system, Chochos has received two master’s degrees from Yale Divinity School, graduating with honors in one of them in 2016.

“It gave me a new language by which to contextualize my own life and the choices that I made,” Chochos said of the education he received behind bars. “It encouraged me to dream for the first time.”

Prison-based college programs serve a more diverse student population than traditional college programs. According to the 2019 John Jay College report, citing DOCCS data from 2016, the state prison population is “25 percent white, 48 percent black/African-American, and 23 percent Hispanic/Latino,” with a similar distribution among the subpopulation participating in college programs. By contrast, “[w]ithin the SUNY system, 57.3 percent of undergraduates are white, 12.3 percent Hispanic, and 10.8 percent are black/African American,” the report notes. (Three of the colleges involved in the College-in-Prison Reentry program are part of the SUNY system.)

Two bills in the State Legislature could impact the future of prison-based college in New York. One sponsored by Assembly Member Jeffrion Aubry and Senator Velmanette Montgomery, two New York City Democrats, would restore eligibility for TAP, the state-funded tuition assistance program, to students in prison.

Another sponsored by Aubry and Senator Jamaal Bailey, a Bronx Democrat, would establish a commission on post-secondary education in prisons to evaluate and make recommendations on higher education in the state prison system. But they face an uphill battle: the commission bill stalled in committee last year, according to a spokesperson for Assembly Member David Weprin, who chairs the Assembly Committee on Correction.

Meanwhile, the New York City Council has committed city funding to education programs for people involved in the criminal legal system as part of a $13.5 million investment in alternatives to incarceration in the current fiscal year. This year, $850,000 was allocated to support education for formerly-incarcerated individuals after being released. Of that funding, $250,000 will go to the Bard Prison Initiative to support reentry and alumni career development activities in prisons for the 6-12 month period before release.

The remaining money will go to the College and Community Fellowship, which provides educational support for women upon reentry and serves approximately 120 women, according to a spokesperson for Speaker Corey Johnson.

New York City Hall

What to watch for this week in New York politics:

Welcome to what promises to be a very busy December in New York politics. As the week begins there’s a great deal of scrutiny on the state campaign finance commission that controversially voted last week to adopt a new public matching system with lower (but still high) individual contribution limits that will become law unless the state Legislature returns to Albany before Christmas to overturn it. The commission also voted to institute new, tougher requirements for political parties to earn or keep an automatic ballot line, and to put candidates on the statewide ballot in the first place. 

Including from a number of state lawmakers, there’s been some criticism of the final product from the commission with regard to the campaign finance system it is putting forward, and a great deal of criticism about its work around the party qualifications, which by most accounts appear to be the result of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s interest in hurting the Working Families Party. So far, legislative leaders have been quiet about the work of the commission, which included representatives from Cuomo (two), Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (two), Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (two), Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb (one), Senate Minority Leader John Flanagan (one), and a ninth decided jointly by Cuomo, Heastie, and Stewart-Cousins. Cuomo praised the outcomes.

Members of the Assembly are due in Albany this week for meetings that could yield more on how the Democratic majority views the campaign finance and political party reforms.

Dermot Shea is the new NYPD Commissioner, having been sworn in over the weekend. He’ll also have a ceremonial swearing-in ceremony on Monday, at which he is expected to give remarks. Shea becomes the third NYPD commissioner under Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has received some criticism over the fact that all three have been white men.

Meanwhile, a New York City gun law supported by Mayor de Blasio and the NYPD is on trial at the Supreme Court this week.

The week also begins just after the Professional Staff Congress of the CUNY system, which represents 30,000 faculty and staff members, voted by a wide majority to adopt a new labor contract, which, according to the PSC, includes “across-the-board raises totaling 10.4 percent over a period of about five years, with additional pay increases going to thousands of workers in the lowest-paid faculty and staff titles. Retroactive pay, increased funding for supplemental health benefits, funding for professional development grants and agreements on online teaching and paid family leave are also included.”

Those are just a few recent highlights and items to watch continue to unfold as December progresses. Another is the ongoing debate over major criminal justice reforms passed earlier this year in Albany and set to take effect in January. The controversy is mostly around bail and discovery reforms.

There’s a lot happening this week, including the ongoing fallout from the state campaign finance commission, Shea’s first week atop of the NYPD, the Supreme Court case, and much more. See our day-by-day rundown below.

***Do you have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics?
e-mail Gotham Gazette editor Ben Max: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.***

The run of the week in detail:

Monday, December 2
On Monday morning in the 7 a.m. hour, Mayor de Blasio will "will call in live to 1010 WINS, WCBS 880, and NY1." At 10 a.m., "the Mayor will hold a media availability to provide an update on the City’s snow preparedness." At 11 a.m., "the Mayor will preside over the ceremonial swearing- in for Dermot Shea as the 44th Police Commissioner of the New York City Police Department and will deliver remarks." At 2 p.m. at the New York Historical Society, "the Mayor and First Lady McCray will attend a teacher workshop entitled ‘Truth, Justice, Civics…The Comic Book Way!’ with Congressman John Lewis for New York City public school teachers and students, where the Mayor will deliver remarks." Then, the mayor visited the home of a Queens resident affected by this weekend’s sewage blockage and held a media availability in Jamaica. And in the 7 p.m. hour, "the Mayor will appear live on NY1’s Inside City Hall with Errol Louis."

At 9 a.m. Monday, the Department of Correction will hold its next public meeting as part of the process around the Board’s proposed restrictive housing rule. Public Advocate Jumaane Williams will be among those who testify.

On Monday morning in Washington, D.C., “the Supreme Court of the United States will hear oral argument in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. City of New York, New York. Petitioners include three New York City residents with handgun premises licenses who challenge a now superseded New York City Police Department gun transport rule originally issued in 2001. Richard Dearing, Chief of Appeals, New York City Law Department, will argue the case on behalf of Respondents New York City and the New York City Police Department. The New York City Law Department is joined on the case by co-counsel Jeffrey L. Fisher, O’Melveny & Myers.

New York City Corporation Counsel James E. Johnson will make a statement outside the Supreme Court immediately following the argument.”

At 10 a.m. Monday in Albany, the Senate Standing Committee on Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities will hold a public hearing on the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities’ transition to managed care.

At 10:45 a.m. Monday, Governor Andrew Cuomo will hold a storm briefing in Kingston.

At 11 a.m. Monday, Dermot Shea will be ceremoniously sworn in as the new NYPD Commissioner at 1 Police Plaza. Shea was officially sworn in over the weekend. Comptroller Scott Stringer will be among those in attendance.

At 11 a.m. Monday at City Hall, “New York City elected officials and transportation safety advocates will rally this Cyber Monday for an end to the Stipulated Fine Program. This 15-year-old program has given delivery trucks a free pass to block bike lanes, fire hydrants, and handicapped parking spots for a discounted ticket rate, which can sometimes be as low as $0. More than 1 million packages are delivered throughout New York City on the average day. Cyber Monday is likely to only make this situation worse as more and more customers are opting to shop online this holiday season.” Participants will include Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, City Council Member Costa Constantinides, representatives of Transportation Alternatives, and others.

At 11 a.m. Monday, the End AIDS NY 2020 Coalition will host its sixth annual World AIDS Days Citywide Commemoration at the New York Academy of Medicine. Speakers will include New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson; Johanne E. Morne, New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute Director; Dr. Oxiris Barbot, New York City Health Commissioner; Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, Deputy Commissioner for the Division of Disease Control; and Dr. Oni Blackstock, Assistant Commissioner for the Bureau of HIV.

At 12:45 p.m. Monday, Comptroller Scott Stringer will visit Queens families impacted by sewage flooding.

At 1 p.m. Monday at the City Council, the Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Sitings, and Dispositions will hold a hearing.

At 5 p.m. Monday, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli will attend the Bloomberg Global Responsible Investing Forum at Bloomberg Headquarters in Manhattan.

At 7 p.m. Monday, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams will join the 'We Fight On' Virtual Town Hall with Justice League NYC to discuss policing and criminal justice reforms. At 8 p.m., Williams will attend the Jim Owles' Liberal Democratic Club Impeachment Gala and Awards Ceremony. And at 9 p.m., Williams will attend the Queens County Democratic Organization Holiday Party.

At 7 p.m. Monday, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson will deliver remarks at WNYC's We the Commuters event in The Greene Space.

Tuesday, December 3
At the City Council on Tuesday:
--At 10 a.m., the Committee on Criminal Justice and the Committee on Justice Systems will jointly hold an oversight hearing on the implementation and expansion of raise the age and related legislation. 
--At 10 a.m., the Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises will meet.
--At 11 a.m., the Committee on Land Use will hold a hearing.  

At 10 a.m. Tuesday in Manhattan, the State Senate Standing Committee on Education and the State Senate Standing Committee on Budget and Revenues will jointly hold a public hearing to examine the distribution of the Foundation Aid formula as it relates to pupil and district needs.

At 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson will appear on WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show.

At noon Tuesday, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams will speak at the Iron Workers District Council's holiday celebration in Manhattan. At 3:30 p.m., Williams will attend a community shooting response after recent gun violence in the Bronx. And at 6:30 p.m. Williams will honor tenants rights leader Michael McKee at his 80th birthday celebration.

Wednesday, December 4
At 10 a.m. Wednesday in Manhattan, the State Senate Standing Committee on Budget and Revenues will hold a roundtable discussion of real property tax reform in New York City.

At 5 p.m. Wednesday, this week’s Max & Murphy show will air on WBAI radio, 99.5 FM or wbai.org, and feature discussion of the new campaign finance reforms put forward by a state commission.

“The New York City Voter Assistance Advisory Committee (VAAC) will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, December 4th. NYC Votes and the VAAC invite New York City voters, to discuss early voting and explore best practices to mobilize communities in 2020. The meeting will take place from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM in the Joseph A. O'Hare, S.J. Board Room of the CFB's office in Lower Manhattan, at 100 Church Street.”

Thursday, December 5
At 10 a.m. Thursday in Albany, the Assembly Standing Committee on Labor will hold a public hearing to “examine various legislative proposals that aim to extend labor rights and protections to workers in the gig economy in New York State.”

At 10 a.m. Thursday, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz will co-sponsor a free opioid overdose response training at NYC Health + Hospitals in Jamaica. Attendees will learn “how to recognise an opioid overdose and how to properly and safely administer naloxone medication to reverse it.”

Friday, December 6
At 10 a.m. Friday in Albany, the Assembly Standing Committee on Transportation will hold a public hearing on the Department of Transportation Capital Program.

At 10 a.m. Friday, Mayor de Blasio may make his weekly appearance on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show.

***
Have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics? E-mail Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max any time: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (please use "For Week Ahead" as email subject).

***
by Ben Max
@GothamGazette

SI DA McMahon at a press conference (photo: @NYCPBA)

November 27, 2019 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Debating Major Criminal Justice Reforms Set to Take Effect in January

Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon and Marie Ndiaye of Legal Aid Society joined the show to discuss their respective concerns about and support for major criminal justice reforms passed earlier this year in Albany an set to take effect in January, especially bail reform and discovery reform.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think -- we're on Twitter @TweetBenMax and @JarrettMurphy. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts, under "Max & Murphy," and listen to Max & Murphy live on Wednesdays at 5 p.m. on WBAI radio, 99.5FM or wbai.org.

(photo: @FairElectionsNY)

A state commission charged with creating a system of public financing for state elections has prompted harsh rebukes from several state legislators for proposing what they say is watered down campaign finance reform and for ostensibly advancing a political agenda that targets longtime critics of Governor Andrew Cuomo.

The New York State Public Campaign Financing Commission was appointed by Cuomo and state legislative leaders after a failure of consensus on overhauling the state’s campaign finance system. It was tasked in state law to create a public campaign finance system and, per Cuomo’s goals, to examine political party qualifications.

Advocates have long called for a setup at the state level modelled on New York City’s successful public matching funds system, which incentivizes candidates to seek small dollar donations rather than relying on wealthy contributors, includes low maximum individual contributions, requires a great deal of transparency, and comes with robust oversight.

But the system proposed by the commission, in its final vote on Monday, fell short of the expectations of advocates and reform-minded legislators. Though it voted to reduce contribution limits across the board for statewide and legislative seats, candidates will still be able to raise vast amounts of private money for elections. For instance, the limits for statewide candidates were reduced from about $70,000 to $18,000 for a full election cycle. But that is more than three times higher than the $5,400 that a candidate for president can raise in a cycle.

Unless the state Legislature returns to amend the commission’s recommendations within three weeks, the system will be adopted. The Legislature could, however, choose to pass new campaign finance laws and tweak the program in the next legislative session, which begins in January.

The commission also approved a higher threshold for parties to obtain a ballot line, increasing it from 50,000 votes in a gubernatorial election to 130,000 votes every two years, and increased the ballot petition signature requirement for statewide candidates from 15,000 to 45,000. To observers, the ballot threshold change in particular seemed intended to kneecap third parties like the Working Families, Conservative, and Green Parties and appeared to be carried out at the behest of Cuomo, who has feuded with the WFP for years. But that controversial mission was also carried out with at least the acquiescence, if not full support, of Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, both Democrats, as is Cuomo.

Yet several Democratic Assembly members and Senators from New York City were displeased by the recommendations the commission made and the process through which its work was carried out over the last several months and quickly made their concerns known.

Queens Senator Jessica Ramos, a progressive elected last year with support from the WFP, took to Twitter to air her criticism of the commission’s proposals, as did other legislators. “We worked HARD last session to fix NY’s broken electoral system. We made it easier to vote & got closer to a people-powered government. The Public Finance Commission's vote is a disservice to our democracy & will eliminate @NYWFP. We need to engage more voters, not limit them!,” she tweeted.

Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou of Manhattan agreed with Ramos, simply tweeting “Yup” in response.

Senator Julia Salazar of Brooklyn tweeted, “This is shamefully undemocratic. We need to act swiftly in the legislature to reject it.”

Brooklyn Assemblymember Walter Mosley tweeted that the party qualification issue should never have been on the commission’s agenda. “Third parties are an essential part of the electoral system in New York, shining light on important issues that otherwise may not get the attention they deserve,” he wrote, calling the proposals “unacceptable” and promising to oppose an increase in the threshold for ballot access. “We should be making it easier for third parties to make it on the ballot, not harder,” he wrote.

In a series of tweets, Assemblymember Bobby Carroll of Brooklyn cited his “no” vote on this year’s state budget deal because of the inclusion of the “poison pill” provision on the state campaign financing commission. “I have said it from the beginning that this commission was rotten! Now we just know how rotten,” he tweeted. “This isn’t a public matching program this is a farce. The legislture (sic) needs to take back control.”

Manhattan Assemblymember Harvey Epstein tweeted, “Deeply concerned w Public Campaign Financing Commission’s vote to recommend legislation riddled w inadequacies, including overly high contrib caps at every level & a measure to kill minor parties."

In response, Manhattan Assemblymember Richard Gottfried wrote, "Protect voters & 3rd parties. The Legislature must reject the commission scheme!"

Brooklyn Assemblymember Jo Ann Simon tweeted, "I’m disappointed w/the Public Campaign Financing Commission’s vote to make it more difficult for minor parties to access a ballot line. We need a special session to address this, the still-too-high contribution limits, & limiting matching donations to a candidate’s district only."

Bronx State Senator Alessandra Biaggi has repeatedly let her disappointment be known. She credited the commissioners for their service but said she does not like the product, writing in part, "The Commission was created to put forth a plan that empowers everyday NYers & reduces the influence of money in our politics – the existing proposal only scratches the surface in achieving that aim, failing to significantly lower contribution limits." Biaggi also cited a "political agenda" at play in the attempt to "increase barriers for third parties."

"This proposal is half-baked & does not reflect the vision of the NYer who testified at the Commission’s hearings, & who raised their voices throughout this entire process," Biaggi continued. "The Legislature now has the responsibility to fulfill our promise to the people and get the job done."

In a phone interview, Bronx Senator Gustavo Rivera reiterated his call for the Legislature to vote on a “clean bill” on campaign finance reform. “I'm terribly disappointed, but I'm certainly not shocked,” he said of the commission’s recommendations.

Rivera blamed the governor’s machinations for derailing the process. “The governor, sadly, does not really care about establishing a campaign finance system. All he cares about is getting even with the folks who are his political rivals. That is his M.O.,” he said.

The “pièce de résistance” he said, was the ballot access threshold requirement, “which is ultimately, with a wink and a nod, trying to get rid of the WFP, which is really what this was about from the beginning.”

“The overwhelming majority of people made it very clear that they should create a campaign finance system that actually tries to at least minimize the impact of big money but that they should steer away from third parties, from fusion voting altogether. All those folks were ignored,” he said.

It’s unclear whether legislative leaders have any intention to support the idea of modifying the binding proposals. Assembly Speaker Heastie’s appointees on the commission generally went along with Cuomo’s appointees, while those commissioners appointed by Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins tended to break from the pack.

Heastie’s office did not return a request for comment about the commission’s plan. Carolina Rodriguez, a spokesperson for Stewart-Cousins, referred Gotham Gazette to comments the senator made in a November 22 interview with WXXI News’ Karen DeWitt. “I’m not trying to destroy parties or make it impossible,” Stewart-Cousins said. “I definitely know, however, that we must reform our campaign finance (system).” She said she would prefer the party conversation to be separate from the campaign finance one, but also seemed open to legislative tweaks come January.

A spokesperson for Senator Mike Gianaris, the deputy majority leader, acknowledged a request for comment but did not provide one by publishing time. Senator Liz Krueger’s office did not respond to a request for comment. Jonathan Timm, a spokesperson for Senator Zellnor Myrie, declined additional comment until the commission’s recommendations are formally released. “Senator Myrie has made clear his support for public financing of campaigns, lowering contribution limits, and keeping the commission's hands out of fusion voting (which he stated explicitly in his testimony to the commission),” Timm wrote in an email. 

The WFP itself appeared to threaten primary challenges against legislators who fall in line behind the governor’s “power grab.” “Instead of designing a strong system of public financing of elections, this commission has designed a weak one, as a cover for a politically motivated attack on the Working Families Party,” Bill Lipton, WFP director, said in a Monday statement. 

He added, “Our opponents believe they can kill us. They are wrong. We will bring the full power of the WFP and our allies to bear in 2020 challenging those who block progressive change and electing the next generation of progressive leaders. We will build the biggest WFP GOTV operation yet to meet these new thresholds. And we will win.”

“If New York Assemblymembers don't speak up about and act to stop this public financing commission, they will be primaried with some amazing, energetic, democratic candidates. We are ready to go,” tweeted Fordham Law professor Zephyr Teachout, who ran against Cuomo in the Democratic primary in 2014, last year sought the Democratic primary nomination for attorney general, and is something of an inspirational leader for the New York left.

At a media gaggle on Tuesday, Cuomo downplayed the changes made to ballot thresholds while praising the commission. “I think the commission was charged with a very difficult task, which was to reform the campaign finance system,” he said. “I have to read the full report, I haven’t done it yet, but they made a number of inarguably great and dramatic reforms.”

He said the state shouldn’t be doling out public funds to political parties “without accountability and responsibility.”

“They’ve set a threshold by percentage and number, which they believe is a threshold that a credible party should reach,” he said. “If it’s not a credible party, then it shouldn’t be getting public tax dollars in primary races, et cetera. The Working Families Party, I think, would meet that threshold. You have to work to meet the threshold, but if you’re not working to meet a threshold, then you shouldn’t be qualifying for public money anyway.”

[Read: State Commission Approves New Campaign Finance System, Raises Bar for Political Party Ballot Access]

This article has been updated with additional comments from legislators.

the state campaign finance commission at its final meeting

The New York State Public Campaign Financing Commission held its final meeting on Monday, voting to institute the creation of a new system for public funding of campaigns for statewide and state legislative offices, with lower contribution limits intended to reduce the effect of money in elections. Though the commission did not act to eliminate fusion voting, as minor political parties and their allies feared, it did move to increase the threshold for parties to obtain a position on the ballot, creating uncertainty about their survival.

The commission, recommendations from which become law unless the state Legislature takes action before Christmas, also voted to establish a new body to administer the campaign finance system. While it advanced historic reforms for New York State, the commission was also criticized by good government groups for not going far enough, and by many members and supporters of political parties like the Working Families, Conservative, and Green parties for what it did do. The entire process also appeared marred by Governor Andrew Cuomo’s desire to punish the WFP, which has long been a thorn in the governor’s side.

Earlier this year, Cuomo and the Democrat-led state Legislature failed to come to an agreement on major campaign finance reforms including a new public matching system. Instead, they compromised and left the task up to a nine-member commission of gubernatorial and legislative appointees, charging it with creating a system with an annual budget of $100 million. The commission’s recommendations, approved with seven votes in favor and two opposed, become law within three weeks unless the state Legislature chooses to hold a special session to amend them.

State leaders can also always adjust the law in the next session and beyond, of course. It is slated to take effect after the 2022 election cycle, the next year with a gubernatorial race. The entire state Legislature is on the ballot in 2020, and every two years.

Under the system proposed by the commission, candidates will be able to opt into a program to receive matching public funds for small dollar donations up to $250. The first $50 will be matched at a 12-to-1 ratio; the second $100 will be matched 9-to-1; and the last $100 will be matched 8-to-1. Only contributions from donors within a candidate’s district will be matchable (for statewide candidates that is the whole state).

The program will be administered by a seven-member Public Campaign Finance Board made up of the four existing commissioners of the state Board of Elections and one member each appointed by the governor and by the majority and minority leaders in the state Legislature.

Despite its mandate to effectively curb the influence that large donors can have in elections, the commission voted on lower contribution limits that are nonetheless quite high. Statewide candidates can raise $18,000 in total from an individual donor in each election cycle, down from about $70,000 currently; candidates for State Senate can raise up to $10,000 from individuals, down from $19,300; and Assembly candidates can raise $6,000, down from $9,400. Notably, the commission did not address limits for party committees, which can raise as much as $117,300 from a single donor and then dole it out to candidates as they see fit. dd

Commissioner John Nonna, an appointee of Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, expressed his discomfort with the contribution limits but conceded that the commission had to make compromises to ensure the recommendations would receive consensus. “The Legislature could not pass this bill….Our process is kind of like a legislative process. There have to be some concessions,” he said. “As reluctant as I am, I’m willing to compromise on this.”

The limit for Assembly candidates was the focus of some last-minute controversy. At their previous meeting, commissioners settled on a $5,000 individual donation limit, and a motion made on Monday to increase it to $6,000 initially failed. But, following a brief break, commissioners returned and reconsidered the motion and approved the increase of $1,000. At least two commissioners reversed their “no” votes, including Jay Jacobs, chair of the State Democratic Party and a Cuomo-appointed member of the commission.

That wasn’t the only motion where commissioners could not make up their minds. Commissioner Kimberly Galvin, co-director of the State BOE’s Campaign Finance Compliance Unit and an appointee of Republican Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb, suggested that the commission vote to increase the number of petition signatures required for a statewide candidate to get on the ballot from 15,000 currently to 45,000. The motion was defeated, as was another that would have increased the signature requirement to 30,000. Again, in a later reconsidered vote, the commission ultimately voted to approve the 45,000 signature threshold, which could hurt opportunity for smaller or new political parties to field candidates for statewide offices.

But perhaps the most controversial move approved by the commission was an increase in the qualifying threshold for third parties to appear on the ballot and win an ongoing ballot line. Currently, parties like the Working Families Party and Conservative Party only require 50,000 votes in the previous gubernatorial election to make the cut and field candidates across the state on their ballot line in various elections over the course of four years. Instead of qualifying in every four-year gubernatorial election, parties will have to meet a threshold every two years of 2% of votes cast or 130,000 votes, whichever is higher, in the gubernatorial or presidential elections.

To many, the move was clearly intended as a reprisal against the WFP, which endorsed his primary opponent, Cynthia Nixon, in last year’s election. The WFP could lose its ballot line if the threshold is allowed to stand, limiting the role it plays in state politics as a driver of progressive candidates and policy.

Henry Berger, who was jointly appointed to the commission by the governor, Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Heastie, sought to rationalize the move, saying the lower threshold allows for the creation of “vanity parties” that clutter the ballot and could lead to primaries that will “bankrupt” the system. Jacobs agreed, insisting, “We’re not looking to target any particular party.”

The WFP wasn’t buying the argument. “This is a power grab by the Governor and his allies to consolidate power and weaken independent progressive political organizing,” said WFP New York director Bill Lipton, in a statement on Monday. “The result is that New York will be the most hostile state in America to minor parties — if the changes hold up to legal scrutiny.”

Other ‘minor’ parties, including the Greens and Conservatives, also criticized the move, and at least one legal challenge may be imminent. The commission was already the source of a lawsuit from the Conservative and Working Families parties over its apparent targeting of fusion voting.

The commission’s recommendations were just as swiftly criticized by government reform groups.

“The public financing commission is a ploy to divert responsibility from the Legislature to unelected representatives,” said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause/NY, in a statement. “The Senate and the Assembly should vote no on these proposals and craft their own bill with hearings and public input. With unreasonably high contribution limits and the gratuitous raising of the threshold for third party ballot access, the commission's work represents a set-back not a step forward. Public financing of elections is too important to get wrong -- but there's still time for the Legislature to get it right.”

Alex Camarda, senior policy advisor at Reinvent Albany, said the new system is better than the current one, but was nonetheless disheartened.

“It's an improvement over the status quo but it doesn't rise to the level of our support because it doesn't do enough to mitigate big money,” he said. He noted that the commission did not reduce contribution limits for corporations, unions, or vendors with business before the state.

He also said the structure of the proposed PCFB seems to undercut the power of the state BOE’s enforcement counsel, currently Risa Sugarman, by giving it authority over all candidates who choose to participate in the new program. With contribution limits being the same for participants and non-participants, Camarda said there would likely be few who do not opt in, “which means that her enforcement office will have much less jurisdiction, really only over non-participating candidates and independent expenditure committees. That's far less jurisdiction than she currently has. So I think that's something that's been overlooked.”

Of the nine commissioners, only the two Republican appointees – Galvin and David Previte – voted against the final proposal package. Several of the other commissioners expressed some frustration with the outcome but said it was a set of compromises they could support.

“It's the funding mechanism that gives me pause that won't allow me to vote for this bill,” Galvin said, agreeing that the system is “workable” but saying it should not be funded through taxpayer money.

Previte was disappointed that the commission diverged from the “gold standard” set by New York City’s three-decade old public funds program which was the model that many thought the state program should emulate. “The incentive to fundraise endlessly is still there,” he said. “And until those aspects of the program are removed, I don't think you're really developing a taxpayer-funded publicly financed program. You're really creating a base subsidy for candidates.”

New York City Hall

What to watch for this week in New York politics:

It looks like there will be a lot of political action this shortened Thanksgiving holiday week. The state campaign finance commission is expected to make key decisions at its final public meeting on Monday, followed by the release of its binding report on changes to New York’s campaign finance laws, including individual donation limits and a public matching system for certain contributions to candidate campaigns. The commission may also take on political party qualifications, particularly what it takes for a party to qualify for an automatic ballot line and whether parties can cross-endorse candidates in a practice called fusion voting.

Per state law passed earlier this year, the commission’s recommendations will become law at the end of this year unless the state Legislature holds a special session before Christmas to overturn its plans.

Meanwhile, there will be a number of state legislative hearings on Monday and Tuesday, and its a very busy week at the City Council, including a Stated Meeting where bills are introduced or passed. The Council is expected to pass another slate of legislation, including a package related to government parking placards and other parking enforcement in the city. First, the Council will hold oversight hearings on the MTA's new capital plan and on the inaugural early voting period during a busy Monday of hearings.

The parking placard bills include one from Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez, chair of the transportation committee, to "require the Police Department to issue periodic reports on the improper use of city-issued parking permits. The reports would include information on the number of summonses the Police Department issued in connection with the improper use of city-issued parking permits, disaggregated by the section of the traffic rules that was violate." Also included, one of Speaker Corey Johnson's several parking-related bills on the docket this week, a bill to "require the Police Department to create a centralized electronic tracking system for all city-issued parking permits. The system would record all summonses issued in relation to the improper use of the parking permits, and would allow the Police Department to verify in real time the validity of the permits." Johnson also has a bill to "prohibit official City vehicles from blocking a bike lane, bus lane, crosswalk, sidewalk, or fire hydrant." Council Member Keith Powers' bill would ""create a standardized application process for City-issued parking permits. Permits could only be issued by the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Police Department, and the Department of Education, if delegated such authority by DOT." There are also bills requiring revocation of certain parking placards and to require city departments to issue plans related to issuance of placards and assessment of need.

And there's more -- see our day-by-day rundown below.

***Do you have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics?
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The run of the week in detail:

Monday, November 25
At 9 a.m. Monday, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson will deliver remarks at the Food Bank for NYC Legislative Breakfast.

At 12:30 p.m. Monday, "Mayor de Blasio will sign Intros. 870-A, 1202-A, 1378-A, 1425-A, 1478-A, 1498-A, and 1570-A, which promote animal welfare." At 2:20 p.m., "the Mayor will appear on Keepin’ It Real with Al Sharpton." And in the 7 p.m. hour, "the Mayor will appear live on NY1’s Inside City Hall with Errol Louis."

At 9 a.m. Monday at City Hall, City Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez, chair of the Council’s transportation committee, public transit riders, and advocates “will demand that the MTA prioritize riders' needs for reliable, accessible subway in capital program, and preserve transit service levels during construction. Before Monday's city council hearing on the MTA FY20-24 Capital Plan, riders and advocates will rally with elected officials for priority signal, train car, elevator upgrades, and recent ride-ability concerns.” Participants will include Rodriguez and other Council members, and representatives of Riders Alliance, TransitCenter, Reinvent Albany, Tri-State Transportation Campaign, Transportation Alternatives, and Transport Workers Union Local 100.

At the City Council on Monday:
--At 10 a.m., the Committee on Transportation will hold an oversight hearing on the MTA’s 2020-2024 capital and transformation plans. Council Speaker Corey Johnson will participate.
--At 10 a.m., the Committee on Housing and Buildings will hold a hearing on legislation that would provide construction workers with information pertaining to site safety training.
--At 11 a.m., the Committee on Health will hold a hearing on legislation that would prohibit the sale of flavored electronic cigarettes and flavored e-liquids and on conducting outreach regarding the availability of smoking cessation services. 
--At 1 p.m., the Committee on Environmental Protection will hold an oversight hearing on effectively utilizing water resources for energy generation, safety and conservation and related legislation. 
--At 1 p.m., the Committee on Governmental Operations will hold an oversight hearing on New York City’s early voting rollout.

The New York State campaign finance commission will hold a public working meeting on Monday at which it is expected to move toward major decisions for its binding recommendations of a new campaign finance system in New York. The meeting will take place at 10 a.m. in Westchester.

At the State Assembly on Monday:
--At 10 a.m., the State Senate Standing Committee on Health and the Assembly Standing Committee on Health will jointly hold a public hearing on the New York Health Act in Kingston, New York. 
--At 11 a.m. in Manhattan, the Assembly Standing Committee on Housing and the Assembly Standing Committee on Cities will jointly hold a public hearing on Affordable Housing Development.
--At 11:30 a.m., the Assembly Standing Committee on Economic Development, Job Creation, Commerce and Industry and the Assembly Standing Committee on Small Business will jointly hold a public hearing on “economic development programs that leverage state funds to foster viable long term business development and economic growth” at the University of Buffalo, SUNY.

At 10:30 a.m. Monday, Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul will tour The Raymond Corporation's Warehouse and Distribution Operations in Greene. At noon, Hochul will highlight New York's workforce development and job training efforts during a tour of ONC BOCES Mechatronics/Robotics Program in Milford.

There will be events on Monday and Tuesday this Thanksgiving week where anti-hunger advocates, with elected officials, will highlight the importance of emergency food programs in New York City. Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America, and others will “release the organization’s annual survey on demand at soup kitchens and food pantries and new findings on how the high cost of housing and other life necessities increases food insecurity and hunger in New York City, the NYC Metropolitan area, and New York State. The report is the only one of its kind identifying how many people in New York City and State are working and still living in hunger….Hunger Free America will also release a new analysis of federal data on hunger in NYC, the NYC Metro region, and NYS. Given the recent proposed regulations by the Trump Administration to cut SNAP benefits and eliminate free school meals eligibility for low-income kids, this data is particularly relevant. The report will also examine how the Trump Administration’s new Public Charge rule has effected food insecure households, particularly immigrant families, in New York.”

At noon Monday in Albany, New York Republican Party Chair Nick Langworthy will continue the GOP’s “Stop the Madness!” anti-impeachment tour, this time targeting Rep. Paul Tonko. “This event is part of a nationwide effort to hold Democrats like Rep. Tonko accountable for their extreme and politically-motivated actions. Chairman Langworthy and others will call on Rep. Tonko to stop stonewalling on passing the USMCA trade deal that Pelosi is now saying they won’t get done this year.”

At 12:15 p.m. Monday, U.S. Representative Adriano Espaillat will host a brunch for veterans. Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer will be among those who speak.

At 2:30 p.m. Monday, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli will address the NYS Council and Student Activities (CLSA) 32nd Annual State Conference in Lake Placid.

At 6 p.m. Monday, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer will host a public hearing on real estate challenges facing religious facilities at 1 Center Street.

The Brooklyn Bar Association will host a panel “Trump and the Rule of Law” at 6 p.m. Monday. Speakers will include Susan Herman, professor at Brooklyn Law School and President of the American Civil Liberties Union; Rep. Jerry Nadler, chair of the Judiciary Committee; James D. Schultz of Cozen O’Connor; Ken Fisher of the Brooklyn Bar Association and of Cozen O’Connor.

As construction of the East Shore Seawall nears, Rep. Max Rose will host a Seawall Town Hall with Staten Island Borough President James Oddo, as well as representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and state and city elected officials at Staten Island Technical High School at 7 p.m. Monday.

Tuesday, November 26
At the City Council on Tuesday:
--At 10 a.m., the Committee on Finance will hold a hearing on multiple bills related to land use applications. 
--At 10:30 a.m., the Committee on Transportation will hold a hearing on multiple bills related to city-issued parking permits.
--At 1 p.m., a City Council Stated Meeting will concur. As usual, Speaker Corey Johnson is expected to hold a pre-Stated press conference at 12:30 p.m.

At 10 a.m. Tuesday, the New York City Board of Standards and Appeals will hold a public hearing in Manhattan.

The State Senate Standing Committee on Social Services will hold a public meeting to engage social service providers and advocates in a discussion of public assistance income and resource limits from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday in Manhattan.

At 6 p.m. Tuesday, the Department of Education’s Panel for Educational Policy will hold a public meeting at Long Island City High School.

Wednesday, November 27
At 10 a.m. City Council on Wednesday, the Committee on Women and Gender Equity will hold an oversight hearing on the Gender equity in NYC: access, resources, and support for transgender and gender non-conforming New Yorkers.

The latest Max & Murphy show will air on WBAI radio, 99.5 FM or wbai.org, at 5 p.m. Wednesday and will feature a discussion of the criminal justice reforms -- include related to bail and discovery -- set to take effect in January that have become a source of major debate.

Thursday, November 28
Thursday is Thanksgiving Day. Happy Thanksgiving!

Friday and the weekend
No events schedule.

***
Have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics? E-mail Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max any time: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (please use "For Week Ahead" as email subject).

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by Ben Max
@GothamGazette

What's The [Data] Point? Episode 85 -- 275, with MTA Board Member Veronica Vanterpool [You can download What's The [Data] Point? wherever you get your podcasts, including on iTunes]

Veronica Vanterpool, an outgoing MTA Board member appointed by Mayor de Blasio, joined the podcast to discuss her work in transit advocacy and on the MTA Board, key MTA-related issues, and more.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think: Ben Max of GG (@TweetBenMax), Maria Doulis of CBC (@MariaDoulis). Listen below or download wherever you get your podcasts!

(photo: Senator Michael Gianaris)

At post-election oversight hearings in New York, where voting is perennially plagued by episodes of malfunction and inefficiency, it is not common to hear politicians praise election administrators. But praise for both the city and state boards of elections was one of the overriding themes of a Wednesday hearing held by state legislators, convened to examine the inaugural implementation of early voting in New York State.

As officials commended both bodies’ efforts to adjust to a slew of new voting reforms in a short 10-month window, they also looked ahead to the 2020 election cycle with some concerns. Among them are how elections administrators plan to run the new and far more complicated early voting system during a year when turnout is expected to be very high given the presidential election, as well as congressional and state legislative races. The hearing also highlighted findings made during the state’s first early voting period, which was largely seen as a test-run for future election cycles.

“The board has often been a punching bag for people upset about the administration of elections but in this case you deserve credit for doing it right and doing it well. This was a first time endeavor for a lot of folks,” said Senator Michael Gianaris, a Queens Democrat, speaking to New York City Board of Elections Executive Director Michael Ryan at Wednesday’s hearing in Manhattan, held jointly by the Senate and Assembly.

“That being said, we got through the pre-season...in one piece, but now next year is going to be the regular season, and we are going to have to anticipate a much larger turnout and a much larger demand,” he added. The presidential primary will be in April, followed by congressional and state primaries in June, and the general election in November.

The State Legislature passed early voting this January as part of a host of election reforms that advocates had long pushed for with scant results when Republicans controlled the Senate, a longtime reign that ended after the 2018 elections. With Democrats in control of both houses and the executive chamber this year, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bills into law on January 24, officially starting the clock to implement early voting by the November general election.

Going forward, the statute requires early voting to be offered for nine days leading up to election day in primary, general, and special elections, including weekends and evening hours. Counties are required to establish at least one in-person early voting site for every 50,000 registered voters. The sites must be accessible and secure, and must have the capacity to store sensitive voting material and machinery for the entire period they are being used, a big ask for many public facilities.

According to unofficial results tallied by the State Board of Elections, 2.98 million ballots were cast statewide in this fall’s elections, including 256,251 ballots cast during the early voting (many ballots including absentee and affidavits are still being counted).

In New York City, where five counties (the boroughs) fall under the city Board of Elections, total turnout was unofficially 737,918, of which just over 60,000 were cast early. The overall turnout was more than three times turnout in 2015, the last city election without a mayoral contest.

Ryan pointed out that over the nine day early voting period, poll sites were open a total of 74 hours, 14 more than was required by statute. A source of some controversy, city administrators selected 61 facilities to use as early voting sites, fewer than the number many advocates and elected officials wanted to see, but more than required. To staff them, 6,140 poll workers were hired and trained and an additional 31,238 were trained to work on Election Day.

To ensure early voting sites could accommodate a wider catchment of election districts and ballot layouts, and to help ensure that voters don’t vote multiple times in the same election, state lawmakers authorized counties to purchase electronic poll books that could track a voter’s ballot from an early voting site to an Election Day poll site.

New York City purchased 4,714 electronic poll book tablets from a St. Louis-based vendor whose technology was compatible with so-called “ballot-on-demand” printers, which could produce a voter’s unique ballot on the spot, rather than requiring early voting sites to stock a prohibitively large range of pre-printed ballots.

The printers produce ballots that do not have perforated edges, one of the factors blamed for the high volume of ballot scanner jams in what many described as a disastrous 2018 election. That year, the city saw unprecedented (for recent times) turnout of roughly 39 percent of registered voters, compared to 14 percent this year. Yet, for an off-off-year election with few high-profile races, the turnout this year was relatively high. In 2015, just 6 percent of registered voters went to the polls. There were additional races and ballot proposals that helped drive turnout this year, including a special election for public advocate and charter revision questions, but many also point to a continued Trump era boom in voter participation.

Despite the turnout, the city BOE recorded only 77 instances of jammed scanners over the entire early voting and Election Day period, Ryan proudly reported.

The positive results discussed Wednesday were couched by the daunting prospect of having to repeat the process at least three more times in a presidential election year. That number could be greater in some jurisdictions, like Queens where Borough President Melinda Katz’s election to district attorney will mean a special election is held in the first few months of the year.

Among the concerns raised by both elected officials and administrators is the fact that early voting sites will need to be open to the public for more than 30 days next year to meet the nine-day statutory requirement plus additional time to prepare a site. That can be a difficult task for schools, churches, and community centers, which the city used this fall to serve as centers where voters could cast ballots early.

At the same time, voting rights advocates and elected officials are pushing for more early voting sites to make the new system more accessible.

“The one site per 50,000 voters standard already permits counties to designate too few early voting sites to guarantee equitable access, but the provision that allows the state’s most populous counties to provide far fewer sites per voter is unworkable,” wrote Perry Grossman, a voting rights attorney with the New York Civil Liberties Union, in his testimony to the legislators.

“We did notice where there were more [early voting sites] there was an increased [voter turnout] percentage,” said Robert Brehm, co-executive director of the State Board of Elections, earlier in hearing.

Another desire of the advocates is to have early voting sites that any voter can use, rather than having to be assigned to one, as was the case this fall. Only four local boards, including New York City’s, had assigned early voting sites, but many of them, especially in rural counties, had only one site overall.

Educators and parents throughout the city raised a number of concerns this year about using schools as early voting sites including security and the length of time students would be without their gymnasium or cafeteria. Of the 61 early voting sites in New York City, 33 were in public schools, whereas only one other county in the state used a school for early voting, according to a recent report in Gothamist. The de Blasio administration is now urging the city BOE to designate sites other than schools, Gothamist reported.

But schools are an attractive choice for election administrators juggling a number of considerations including whether sites meet accessibility requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act and whether they would cost the city additional funding to use.

Brehm says renting space is not something that has been widely done before but it may be an option boards of elections will consider in the future to meet the demands of a growing culture of early voting.

“We need broader authority from the State Legislature to designate locations, and some structure of what compensation should look like for these locations,” Ryan, the city BOE executive director, told the lawmakers Wednesday.

Reacting to the idea after the hearing, Senator Gianaris told Gotham Gazette, “If we are going to do that we should not open it up to wide discretion, there should be set parameters for what the city is willing to pay so that you don’t get into some extraneous negotiation where all of the sudden you’re paying much more than is justified for this.”

“The State Board recognizes that of any topic, poll site designation, will be in the forefront of conversation for many election cycles,” reads the State Board of Elections report on early voting, which was presented Wednesday.

Funding was a general concern for Brehm and his colleague, Co-Executive Director Todd Valentine, who said counties were forced to deploy new resources to meet the demands of dozens of voting reforms passed in Albany this year, without additional money from the state. The funding could go towards communications, additional training, security, and a host of other needs still being evaluated in the post-election season.

Brem pointed out that using new technology, like electronic poll books, and the new early voting system in general has raised new questions about what communications and training local boards need to undertake.

One issue raised by a number of lawmakers was the scannable card mailed to voters, intended to streamline the check-in process at poll sites. The cards are not mandatory to vote but poll workers were instructed to ask for them, only as an option, to help move the lines. Many voters reported being confused by the question and believed they were being told the card was required in order to receive a ballot. Some voters believed they were being asked to show ID to vote.

(Photo: Mike Groll/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)

After months of uncertainty about the state’s commitment to the 2020 Census, and repeated exasperated pleas for funding from advocates and elected officials, Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday announced that the state will devote up to the equivalent of $60 million in outreach efforts for the decennial population count. According to a press release from the governor’s office, Cuomo is directing state agencies to dedicate what amounts to roughly $40 million worth of Census activities, such as helping New Yorkers fill out the form, while also beginning the process of allocating $20 million earmarked in the state budget earlier this year toward contracts with groups that will drive participation in hard-to-count communities.

“Counting every New Yorker in the 2020 Census is critical to ensuring we are accurately represented in Congress and receive the federal funding we deserve," Cuomo said in a statement. “While the federal government has thrown up road block after road block – spreading fear among immigrant communities in the process – in New York we will break through and make sure that even our most difficult to reach communities are counted.”

As Cuomo intimated, the 2020 Census will come with its fair share of complexities. New York State is home to many hard-to-count populations including seniors, children under the age of 5, homeless people, public housing residents, and immigrants, particularly non-English speakers and undocumented residents. African-American communities are historically also often home to among the lowest participation rates on the Census.

The U.S. Census Bureau is also emphasizing digital responses, creating challenges for communities with little to no access to high-speed internet, and has less-than-adequate funding to hire enumerators who go door-to-door to count residents who do not self-respond to the Census. An unsuccessful two-year effort by the Trump administration to add a citizenship question to the Census questionnaire also generated fear and apprehension among immigrant communities, leaders of those communities say.

An undercount would have dire consequences for the state, not only reducing its share of many billions of dollars in federal funding but also its representation in Congress, along with myriad other adverse effects that would be felt for a decade.

Cuomo’s announcement was based on the report of the New York State Complete Count Commission, which was charged with crafting a strategy for the Census count and spent months soliciting input from experts and members of the public on how the state should spend the $20 million allocated in the state budget. Next week, the state will put out a Request for Expressions of Interest so nonprofits can apply for grants out of that funding pot.

In a surprise to advocates, Cuomo also declared Tuesday that $40 million in existing state agency resources would be committed to the endeavor. The effort will involve CUNY, SUNY, and agencies across state government including the Departments of Labor, Motor Vehicles, Agriculture and Markets; the offices of Mental Health, Alcohol and Substance Abuse, and People with Developmental Disabilities; Empire State Development; and the Division of Veterans Affairs.

Cuomo noted in his announcement, for instance, that the state labor department will help New Yorkers fill out the Census at all 96 of its career centers; SUNY and CUNY will ensure as many as possible of their 700,000 students are counted; and the DMV will display Census information at its 27 state-run district offices and 94 county-run field offices, along with emailing 4 million New Yorkers in its database.

The state has precious little time to put thought into action. The Census count officially begins in March and the U.S. Census Bureau has begun to release the logistical details of the process, including a Monday announcement of areas where households in hard-to-count regions will receive paper questionnaires even amid the emphasis on digital responses.

Meanwhile, New York City has spent months preparing a multi-pronged approach to the various obstacles presented by the Census, with $40 million of its own provided together by Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York City Council. The city has created neighborhood coordinating committees, is recruiting hundreds of volunteers, engaging city agencies and local businesses, and will launch a large media campaign in January.

The state, on the other hand, had taken few steps until now. The New York State Complete Count Commission was delayed in being named and creating its strategy. The Commission’s report identified challenges and proposed solutions that were already known to advocates who say their only impediment was a lack of funds. Cuomo’s announcement on Monday was welcome news to them.

“Time is of the essence. The official Census 2020 release is just a few months away. It is imperative that we have an expeditious process for awarding the money allocated for the community based organizations that are on the frontlines,” said Esmeralda Simmons, executive director of the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College, in a statement.

Simmons was on the state Census commission and is a member of New York Counts 2020, a statewide coalition of advocates, nonprofit organizations and business groups that are working on an accurate census count. “Those groups, which engage directly with the community, are the trusted voices who are best able to underscore the importance of filling out the census and being counted. These are the organizations that will help make the difference and ensure that vulnerable 'hard to count' communities are fully represented in the census,” Simmons added.

“This is much needed and overdue,” said State Senator Zellnor Myrie, who has been outspoken about the need for Cuomo to move ahead on Census preparation, in a Tuesday statement. Myrie did issue a word of caution: “[A]s always, the devil is in the details. It is still unclear to us whether historically under-counted communities, like Brooklyn, will receive a proportion of the funding that is commensurate with their unique need and, whether that funding will be dispersed as expeditiously as possible given how close the census is.”