The Weekly Wonk: Registration Forms processed in 2022

Welcome back to the #WeeklyWonk. Each weekend I release an article on a subject relating to elections in Onondaga County and New York State. Often these articles will have detailed stats to consume but sometimes they will be a recap of a prominent issue or on relevant election law. I am turning my eye to the 2023 elections. This week I take a break from looking at the political subdivisions and focus on a work item from the Onondaga County Board of elections.  Today I examine the registration forms processed at the Onondaga County Board of Elections.

Processing registration changes is one of the biggest workloads, outside of running the elections itself, of the Onondaga County Board of Elections.    In 2022 we processed 66,308 Registration forms.  The DMV made up the largest portion of our registration work with 47,164 forms (71%).  Forms received by Mail were the second most with 9977 (15%), forms received over the counter at the Board was third with 4,321 (7%), Affidavit ballots that have a registration form on it was fourth with 2,865 (4%), and forms received through NYS and government agencies was last with 1770 (3%). That number seems large, but it is actually the lowest registration load since 2017.  That is a little deceptive and I will explain further.

The biggest drop in forms this year compared to last year was the Mail category.   2021 was a local year which we would expect to have less activity than a federal year.  However, we processed only 9,977 forms in the mail category this year, just 36.3% of last year’s 27,500.  The mail category includes our “mail Check” informational cards in it.  These cards go out in May to every active registered voter in Onondaga County.  When cards are returned as undeliverable or have forwarding addresses on them, we change registrations based on the information on the card.  This is usually done in the months of July an August after the June primary.  In 2022 we were given a second primary in August because of the NY redistricting lawsuit.  Our small staff was unable to process these forms and prepare for the August primary.  We were then too close to the federal general election in 2022.  This meant thousands of mail-check cards were left undone.  We are looking to do more in 2023 to catch up from this backlog.

We did see an increase in forms received over the counter, which you would expect in a mid-term year.  Forms received over the counter are not just individuals showing up in person, but forms delivered from various registration drives done by advocacy groups.  Our 4321 forms in 2022 is an increase of 33.5%.  This is a welcome sign as in person voter registration drives in 2020 and 2021 were hampered by the COVID -19 virus.  While this increase is notable, it still lagged behind the last mid-term year of 2018 (6505) and even the last normal election year of 2019 (4772).

DMV registrations were counted as mail registrations before 2013 when I became commissioner and started breaking out the statistic in our annual report.  In 2016 the NYS DMV offered a form of online voter registration for those that have a MYDMV account.  The growth in this category has been astronomical.  When we compare 2022 to the last mid-term the 47164 forms was greater than 2018 (42696).  However the DMV forms in 2019, 2020, and 2021 were significantly higher than 2022.  It needs to be noted that every DMV form received as timely was processed by the Onondaga County Board of Elections.  The cut off for registration forms was October 14, 2022.  Forms received after the voter registration cut off are held until after the election to be processed.  This is usually done in December after election certification.  However, this year we had the #SD50 hand count that lasted until December 21, 2022.  Because of the ongoing hand count and litigation, we could not process voter registrations until after that.  So many forms that were in our office to be processed will now show up as processed in 2023 instead of 2022.  This could account for some of the fall off.

Forms delivered by NYS government agencies was also counted in the Mail category before 2013.  It is routinely one of the smallest categories for receiving voter registrations.  In 2022 we received 1,770 forms in this category which was an increase from 2021 (1461) of 17.5%.  However, 2021 and 2022 are far below any year on record.  The Board of Elections are reliant on NYS agencies to provide these forms to us as part of election law.  It is possible with less in person appointments due to the COVID-19 crisis agencies have not been able to get forms filled out.  We should monitor this in the future to see if this a bounce back over the next few years.

In 2019 we started to track the voter registration updates from Affidavit ballots, before it was put into the counter category.  Affidavit registrations come from Affidavit ballots received in person during Early or Election Day voting.  In 2022 we processed 2,865 registration forms off affidavits, almost doubling the 1462 forms from 2021.  This is almost entirely due to increase voter turnout as the mid-term turnout (56.23%) was double the turnout of 2021 (31.08%).  The exception to that rule is 2019 where a large amount of affidavits were processed for a low turnout election (36.73%).  Increased voter registration activity paired with electronic poll books at polling places is making affidavit balloting less frequent as the voter rolls are more accurate.

Finally we look at voter registration forms processed annually since 2009.  Voter registration work has grown exponentially since 2016.  This growth is mainly due to forms from the DMV, and that is because of the MYDMV online voter registration system.  From 2011 to 2014 the BOE averaged 19256.50 forms per year.  From 2015-2019 the OCBOE processed 38,516 annually. This last four-year cycle, 2019-2022, the BOE averaged 86,081 forms annually.  This is an increase of 447% over these three cycles and 223% from the last cycle.  It is important to keep in mind the growth can be attributed to online options for DMV users.  This year the NYS Board of Elections will implement online voter registration for all citizens and automatic voter registration is on its way as well.  This could see even more work sent to our office and staffing levels will need to be adjusted.

That’s it for this #WeeklyWonk.  Next week I plan to look at redistricting in 2023.  All 17 Onondaga County Legislative districts and all 5 district Syracuse Common Council districts have been altered for the 2023 election. I will look at the differences in these districts as our registration vendor implements the new maps for 2023.  Remember to subscribe to dustinczarny.com for all election news and content updates.

Zoom With Czarny: Danielle Brecker Empire State Indivisible

This week I check in with Danielle Brecker of Empire State Indivisible. We have a discussion on state politics, the history of Indivisible, and what they are doing around the budget and hopes for this legislative session. Enjoy.

https://anchor.fm/zoomwithczarny

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My Reaction to the State of the Union spectacle last night.

The problem with the ultra-maga depiction of Joe Biden as a feeble incoherent doddering old man, besides the fact that it is mean-spirited, is that it is untrue.

So when President Joe Biden masterfully goes into a room like he did last night, it is tailor-made for him to own the cons.

He showed his empathy and intelligence, laid out not only his accomplishments but exposed the wishes of the other side. Doing so when the expectations set by the right were so low is more impactful. He outmaneuvered them at the moment and set them up all night.

Now the focus should be on the GOP proposals and policies. Joe Biden laid out his plans in a masterful speech. The GOP booed and acted like children, so now it’s time for them to show their policy proposals. Want spending cuts for the debt ceiling to rise? Show us what you want to cut.

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Commissioner in a Car: Fall in Love with your party day is next week.

I talk about next week’s party change deadline, Valentines Day February 14th. Or as I like to call it, “Fall In Love With Your Party Day”. Go to onvote.net and click on the registration page to find out how to change your registration as it must be received by 2/14/23 to be able to vote in this year’s primary and participate in the petition process.

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The Weekly Wonk: The City of Syracuse 2023

Welcome back to the #WeeklyWonk. Each weekend I release an article on a subject relating to elections in Onondaga County and New York State. Often these articles will have detailed stats to consume but sometimes they will be a recap of a prominent issue or on relevant election law. I am turning my eye to the 2023 elections. Each week I look at political subdivisions that have races in them this fall. Today I am focusing on the heart of Onondaga County, the City of Syracuse.

The City of Syracuse recently underwent a transformation in their political landscape.  Last year the first and only citizen led redistricting commission reshaped the 5 districts of the common council aligning them with population patterns after 30 years of neglect.  These new district lines will be in place for the 2023 elections.  In this article though we won’t be examining them as our registration system at the Onondaga County Board of Elections is undergoing a registration system change and that data will not be available until later this month.  Instead I am focusing on the City of Syracuse neighborhoods as defined by their ward lines so we can look at the changes over time.

The City of Syracuse currently has 71.527 voters and is easily the bluest city or town in Onondaga County.  Democrats have a majority of voters with 55%. In second place is the non-enrolled voter with 26% of voters. The GOP is in 3rd place and their enrollment has shrunk to 13%, now doubled up by the non-enrolled voters.  For this article I have broken the City of Syracuse into 10 neighborhoods using the ward lines to define them.  It is not perfect but I tried to group wards together to represent somewhere between 5k-9k voters or 8%-13% of the voters.  Ward lines are unchangeable as they are part of the City Charter, often how land was added to the City of Syracuse as it grew.  Sometimes wards can span two different neighborhoods and I have done my best to group them in a logical way.  Those neighborhoods are Center City (Ward 9,10,15,18), Eastside (17), Eastwood (5), Northside (1,3), Sedgewick/Lincoln Hill (4,6), Strathmore (11,12), University (16,19), West Valley (13), East Valley (14), and the West Side (2,7,8).

The City of Syracuse has long been Democratic like most urban areas in the Northeast.  The partisan divide is continuing to widen but its not because Democrats are gaining large amounts of voters.  Since 2009 Democrats have gained 736 voters while the GOP has lost 3,793 voters.  The non-enrolled are the greatest most consistent gainers in Syracuse adding 2,041.  The story of Syracuse seems to be small growths for Democrats as the GOP move out and are replaced largely by non-enrolled voters.

As we look at the partisan enrollment of in the individual neighborhoods it becomes clear just how much Democrats dominate every corner of Syracuse.  Not only do Democrats have the most enrolled voters in every neighborhood.  Likewise the non-enrolled voters are solidly in 2nd place.  Still there are some differences we can see in these neighborhoods.  When we look at percentage Democratic the most Democratic neighborhood is the Eastside (65.5%) followed by the University (64.2%), Center City (61.5%), West Valley (61.2%), East Valley (59.3%), Strathmore (57.2%).  The other neighborhoods are where Democrats only have a plurality of support Sedgewick/Lincoln Hill (48.9%), Westside (47.8%), Eastwood (46.6%), and the northside (45.0%).  Eastwood is the best neighborhood for the GOP as there is still a significant portion of GOP enrolled voters so they are not doubled up by non-enrolled and their ration of Dem to GOP (2.45/1) is the best of all the neighborhoods.

The City of Syracuse has lost 1,532 voters since 2009 but that may not be indications of a trend of loss.  Urban populations tend to be more susceptive to the registration waves of the Presidential election.  In fact we see that since 2009 the University area is down 2000 voters since 2009.  Presidential elections tend to see rising registration rates in university and urban areas in the year of the election lasting the year after.  What we do see in the other neighborhoods is mostly stability in their registration numbers with two exceptions, the Center City (+679) and Westside (+407) neighborhoods.  When we dive into the individual wards in these two neighborhoods we see two wards standing out, the ninth ward in Center City adding 547 voters, and the 2nd ward in the West Side adding 328 voters.  The common factor here is an emphasis on dense apartment living as downtown commercial space and old factory buildings are being turned into apartments in these neighborhoods.  It points to the possible future of city living.

When we look at the partisan makeup of these neighborhoods compared to 2009 there are some interesting anecdotes.  The highest growing neighborhood (center City) had the least Democratic growth (.39%).  However that could be because it has always had a strong Democratic advantage with little place for it to go.  In fact in the more GOP friendly areas of our city we have seen the some of the most Democratic growth.  In 2009 the Valley was one of the more GOP friendly areas of the City and has dramatically changed over the last 14 years with Democrats growing at 11.49% in the East Valley and an astounding 27.87% in the West Valley.  Like today Eastwood, the Northside, and Sedgewick/Lincoln hill neighborhoods were the other more conservative areas of the City and thus there was more room for growth for Democrats in those neighborhoods.

Finally, we look at the comparative races.  If we want to see how Democrats perform in their theoretical best year, we look to the 2020 Presidential race where President Biden won nearly 77% of the vote.  Governor Hochul’s race in 2022 represents the normal mid term expectations with Democrats winning 73.51% of the vote.  However since this is a local year I am going to focus in on the 2021 Supreme Court Race and 2019 County Clerk Race.  While Brindisi did not win the Supreme Court race in 2021 he did win Onondaga County.  His performance of 73.78% actually bested Hochul in 2022 and propelled him to win Onondaga County. The 2019 County Clerk race is a good example of how the GOP needs to fare in the City to win County-wide.  Mark Kolinski only won 68.55% of the vote in the City and because he underperformed he narrowly lost the County Clerk race.  For comparison’s sake I am adding the 2021 Mayoral race which remains a unicorn in City performance.  Ben Walsh’s re-election as an independent mayor remains the exception to the rule in city contested races and shows the path for winning City wide is possible for a non-Democrat, though highly unlikely and hard to duplicate.

That does it for this edition of the #WeeklyWonk.  Next week I take a quick break on voter registration previews to focus on voter registration forms!  Namely I will be looking at our annual report data for registration forms processed by Onondaga County Board of Elections.  This will hopefully allow our registration vendor to catch up and we can then dive into the new districts for the City Of Syracuse Common Council and Onondaga County Legislatures later this month.  Remember to subscribe to dustinczarny.com for all content and election news updates.

Zoom with Czarny: Christine Wood of Public Citizen

This week I talk to Christine Wood, co-director of Declaration for American Democracy for Public Citizen. We talk about her organization’s actions to improve voting rights nationally with a House GOP majority set to block any congressional legislation. We also talk about how states are taking the lead in this fight as well. Enjoy.

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The Weekly Wonk: The Towns of Onondaga County

Welcome back to the #WeeklyWonk. Each weekend I release an article on a subject relating to elections in Onondaga County and New York State. Often these articles will have detailed stats to consume but sometimes they will be a recap of a prominent issue or on relevant election law. I am turning my eye to the 2023 elections. Each week I hat will have races in them this fall. Today I am focusing on the towns of Onondaga County.

While the City of Syracuse is the primary focus of cultural and political news in Onondaga County, the towns are the most dominant force in county wide politics.  While Syracuse is mostly blue and pretty predictable, the towns have a variety of demographic makeups and sizes.  We have reliable blue towns like Dewitt and Marcellus that perform much like the city, strong Democratic support up and down the ticket in both local and federal years.  Towns like Clay, Geddes, & Salina that regularly perform well for Democrats in Federal years but have lagging support for local candidates. The rest of the towns generally have little support for Democratic candidates, even in federal years.

235,337 voters live outside of the City of Syracuse, roughly 75% of the voting population of Onondaga County. It is surprising to many that outside of the City of Syracuse Democrats do have a plurality of voters.  33% of the non-Syracuse voters are Democratic, 31% Republican, and 29% Non-enrolled.  Last week I broke the county into five different regions based on geography. For this week’s column I will be looking at the towns based on Demographic makeup.  In essence we have three types of communities in Central New York.  The City of Syracuse is the urban core of our county.  The “Large Suburban Towns” have over 10k voters and generally take on a more suburban feel.  The “Small Rural Towns” have under 10k voters and have a more agrarian makeup. Of course inside each town there are areas that fit both definitions so this is just a way to look at the makeup.  The Large Suburban Towns are generally in the center of our county surrounding Syracuse (Which has 23% of the voters) or the Northern Towns and make up 64% of the voting population.  The Small Rural Towns string along the southern and western borders and make up just 13% of the population.

When we look at the Partisan makeup of the three regions of our county, we can see why Democrats have won the Onondaga County portion of twenty of the twenty-six races that had all of our county encompassed in it.  The City of Syracuse remains a dominant Democratic city with Democrats having nearly four times the number of GOP and Non-enrolled nearly doubling up the GOP.  The suburban towns on a whole also show a significant lead for Democrats with 7232 more voters and the non-enrolled is closing in with just 2,608 voters less than the GOP.  The GOP still have a decided edge in the small rural towns outnumbering Democrats by 3,971 voters and the non-enrolled trail the Democrats by just 360 voters.  The GOP dominance in the rural towns though is offset by the size and growth of the suburban towns and of course the City of Syracuse. 

Since 2009 the Democrats have gained 12,457 voters, while the GOP has lost 3,630 voters. The Trump years definitely had its effect on the Central New York population. The growth of Democratic enrollment was most dramatically felt outside of the City of Syracuse. From 2009 to 2015 the GOP was losing voters and the Democrats for the most part were staying even.  However from 2015 to 2020 the Democrats had a dramatic increase in enrollment while the GOP actually stagnated for the most part.  Since 2020 the Democrats have remained stagnate while there has been some decrease on the GOP.  The most consistent rise has been the non-enrolled voters.  Since 2009 they have gained at a steady pace adding 14,167 voters.

When we look at the individual towns and the changes from 2009 it highlights the gains Democrats have made are dramatic by localized in a few dramatic switches in large towns.  In 2009 only the Town of Dewitt had a small Democratic enrollment edge.  Now the Towns of Manlius, Salina, Clay, Camillus, Geddes, and Onondaga all have a Democratic plurality. Most notably is the large switch in Manlius, the 3rd most populous town shifting from a reliable GOP town to a reliable Democratic town.  In fact Democrats made numerical gains in all but Cicero, Elbridge, Fabius, & Otisco. 

In towns though third parties have a dramatic impact, specially the Conservative party.  When you look at gains you have to include the Working Family Party registrants which are mostly aligned with Democrats, and the Conservative Party that mostly aligns with the GOP.  This chart shows the percentage gains inside each town when adding the third party in.  As towns grow and more non-enrolled voters grow the percentage of the Democratic faction has grown in 118 of the nineteen towns since 2009.  It is obvious that the Democratic towns of Dewitt & Manlius have large gains. It is also not surprising that the other towns that flipped Democrat such as Camillus, Clay, Geddes, Onondaga, & Salina are some of the higher gains as well.  What may surprise people is how much Democrats have increased their influence in solidly Red towns like Lysander, Skaneateles, Spafford, Pompey, and Marcellus.  Each of these towns have elected Democrats town wide recently even with a numerical disadvantage.  This growing influence certainly has helped. The only town that Democrats have not seen a statistical growth in influence if Fabius, however the growth in other red towns like Cicero, Elbridge, and Otisco are negligible.

Finally we look at the four comparative races to give us a sense of how the towns as a group vote.  For the 2023 Weekly Wonks I am using one race from each of the last four years to demonstrate how a political subdivision can expect to perform.  For the federal years of 2022 and 2020 I chose the top of the ticket, Governor and President to show how a district can perform in high turnout years.  In the local years of 2021, I chose the most competitive race to give an idea, absent of individual campaign dynamics, the electorate might perform in odd years.  I chose a race in 2021 where the Democratic candidate carried Onondaga County (Brindisi for Supreme Court) and a race in 2019 where the GOP won Onondaga County (Dell for County Clerk).  I will try and throw in the most recent local race as well however no such race exists in just the towns.

Not surprisingly the Towns of Onondaga County reacted differently in each year and that can be accredited to turnout.  President Biden won with the largest margin of any competitive race in recent memory in Onondaga County and did so in the towns winning 54.30 % of the vote.  Governor Hochul ran basically even in 2022 in the towns picking up 49.74% of the vote. Brindisi was able to win Onondaga County by limiting his losses in the towns an winning 46.84% of the vote in 2021.  Mark Kolinski though in 2019 only won 42.95% of the town vote in 2019 and barely lost the County Clerk race.  It is pretty clear for a Democrat to win county wide they can lose the towns, but must win 45% of the vote and take advantage of the Town vote.

Next week I turn my attention to the City of Syracuse as a whole. Our registration vendor is currently applying the new common council and county leg maps and I don’t have statistics for those yet.  I plan to dedicate an individual Weekly Wonk to the changes in each of those once they are done.  Next week though I will focus on the City of Syracuse and toplines on the Wards inside the city.  Remember to subscribe to dustincarny.com for all election news and content updates.

Zoom with Czarny: Alec Lewis of O’Donnell and Associates

This week I speak to Alec Lewis of O’Donnell and Associates. Alec was recently employed by the New York State Senate Democratic Conference and shares some thoughts on NY state politics with the opening of the legislative session in New York and the State of the State. Enjoy.

https://anchor.fm/zoomwithczarny

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2023 NYS Elections Commissioner Association Democratic Caucus Legislative Priorities

(At last week’s NYSECA conference the NYSECA Legislative committee propsed a legislative package that was supported by both caucuses and with near unanimous support of the entire association. The Democratic Caucus of Commissioners have adopted all of these bi-partisan recemondations and hacve a few more we are making as a caucus in addition. Below is our official list of 2023 legislative priorities. This will be updated with bill numbers should they become available. We also have a list of other bills that members have asked us to support you can read here. )

Give Boards of Elections the ability to properly serve the voters of New York.

To meet the needs of our modern political calendar we propose the following reforms to Board of Election Offices to be passed as a singular package by the NYS Legislature:

  • Four-year terms for all boards of elections commissioners beginning the year after the gubernatorial election. (Bi-partisan support) (S6933/A4777). Read our Memorandum of Support.
  • Minimum staffing requirements set by the State Board of Elections for full time permanent employees for each Board of Election. (Bi-partisan support). (S644/A1258) Read our Memorandum of Support
  • Require all Commissioners in New York outside of the City of New York to be full time commissioners with salaries set based on a metric of County department heads within the host county, to be determined by the State Board of Elections (Bi-partisan support). (S611/A919) Read our Memorandum of Support

Since 2019, long awaited election reform has changed local Boards of Elections responsibilities without making the structural changes necessary for each county board to meet the needs of their voters.  Making these changes will allow County Commissioners the ability to strategically plan and bring year-round full-time management to the Board of Elections in every county.  In addition, each county will have the sufficient staffing needed to keep up with the increased voter registration and canvassing requirements they have been assigned under New York State Election Law.  All of these priorities have bi-partisan and near unanimous support amongst Election Commissioners.

Invest in our election system by providing the following funding streams in the New York State Budget.

  • Capital funding for replacement of aging voting equipment. Allow for reimbursement for any county that has replaced their voting fleet since January 2019. (Bi-partisan support).
  • Dedicated funding for voter outreach and media campaigns. (Bi-partisan support)
  • Properly fund the New York State Board of Elections and give the NYSBOE proper authority to promulgate regulations and enforce responsibilities outlined in state law. (Bi-partisan support)

County Board of Elections are desperate for dedicated funding to meet the technological needs required of the modern electoral landscape.  New precinct scanners, on-demand ballot printers, and electronic poll books have stretched the capital budgets of counties across New York.  We need dedicated funding to replace aging voting equipment annually.  We also need dedicated funding for media outreach and public education campaigns to inform the voters of all the changes in election law so they can properly cast their ballots.  Finally, it is essential that New York State properly and adequately fund the New York State Board of Elections.  They provide guidance to all County Board of Elections and must have the resources necessary to fulfill their ongoing responsibilities and provide oversight.

Provide flexibility for County Board of Election operations.

•             Allow for flexibility for designating non-enrolled inspectors to serve as Republican or Democratic inspectors. (Bi-partisan support)

Inspector recruitment in urban and rural areas is becoming problematic.  Adhering strictly to the partisan election inspectors is becoming unfeasible.  Allowing Boards of Elections to open some spots to non-enrolled or third-party voters may help ease the burden in hard to recruit areas.  Polling places should still be required to have at least 1 member of both major parties, but flexibility in staffing will allow for Boards to operate seamlessly throughout Early Voting and Election Day.

•             Grant County Election Commissioners independence and flexibility with respect to determining hours of operation. (Bi-partisan support)

Boards of Elections are unique entities.  They need flexibility to determine their own hours of operation to accommodate weekend and Early Voting as well as staying open on election deadlines.

Reform election law to provide clarity to better serve the election process.

Alter the Automatic hand recount in the following ways.

•             Reduce the threshold for triggering recounts in close elections to .25% and allow for alternative scan within the .25-50% range, while also reducing the minimum vote threshold to 10. (Bi-partisan support) S1014/A1259 Read our Memorandum of Support

•             Mandate the hand recount start after the final absentee canvass per regulations from the NYS Board of Elections. (Bi-partisan support)

•             Exempt all party position contests from the manual hand count. (Bi-partisan support)

The automatic hand-count has been in place for several election cycles.  We have learned that the precinct scanners are accurate.  Lowering the threshold for the hand-count will allow Board of Elections to only focus on the truly close races that have a chance of changing hands.  We must also stipulate that the hand-count should only start after initial certification allowing boards to properly prepare and sort ballots for counting.  Finally, we should exempt party positions from the hand count rule as these elections are routinely close but not close enough to switch winners and draw resources away from publicly held offices.

•             All cures should have a final received by date to allow for proper certification of our election on the last day of certification. (Bi-partisan support)

Absentee cures and the current timelines often can stretch beyond the certification date for the election.  To allow for proper certification and hand counting of close races we should have a final date for a cure to be received by the certification day for the election.

•             NY State should participate in cross state matching programs to keep our voter rolls accurate.

Accuracy of our voter rolls is paramount for running a successful election.  New York should participate in ERIC or another cross-state matching program so we can inactivate voters who have registered to vote in another state. 

•             Altering the highest municipality early voting law to lower the highest city threshold to at least 10,000 voters. (Bi-partisan support)

The alteration of the Early Voting statute to mandate an EV center in the highest City rather than municipality inside a county has created unforeseen issues.  Many counties have very small, incorporated cities that would mandate Early Voting centers away from more populous municipalities. Enacting a minimum voter threshold for a city will accomplish the goals of the legislature to make sure Urban areas have access to Early Voting while allowing counties with small cities to ensure more of their citizens get access to Early voting.

•             Encourage legislation denoting that all public offices within the state of New York be referred to in gender neutral terms on Primary and General election ballots. (Bi-partisan support)

In our modern world there is no need to still assign gender to political office.  This causes confusion when creating ballots, often having to place candidates in gender labelled positions that they do not identify with. Making all offices gender neutral will allow Boards of Elections make uniform ballots throughout all public offices.

Give Voters the resources they need to properly register and cast ballots.

Amend the New York State constitution by:

•             Restarting the Constitutional amendment on No Fault Absentees.

•             Restarting the constitutional amendment on Same day registration

Increasing the ability of voters to cast ballots by mail is an important priority.  Likewise, the ability to register to vote should be as flexible.  35 states and Washington DC have no-fault absentee voting.  22 states and Washington DC have same Day registration.  New York should start the years long process to amend our constitution to give voters a chance to choose these options in a high turnout election year.

•             Authorize the issuing of same-day absentee ballots in those instances when commissioners agree that health-related exigencies on or immediately prior to Election Day create hardship. (Bi-partisan support) A1111 Read our Memorandum of Support

Late emerging circumstances are a reality of our election process.  Currently on Election Day infirmed individuals have no explicit process to receive an absentee.  Giving commissioners the ability to approve Election Day absentee requests will allow those who have late unavoidable circumstances to still cast a ballot.

•             Designation Election Day as a non-attendance day for public school students. (Bi-partisan support) S2024A/A4294 Read our Memorandum of Support

It is harder to secure polling places with private institutions such as churches and businesses increasingly resistant to open doors.  In many communities the only HAVA compliant buildings with proper parking are schools.  Mandating a non-student attendance day on Election Day will balance the needs of protecting students while making these buildings available for the voting public.

•             Allow for Vote Centers on Election Day as well as Early Voting on a permissive basis. (Bi-partisan support) S5537A/A6939A Read our Memorandum of Support

With the adoption of on-demand ballot printers and electronic polling books we have the tools to take the next logical step in our Election Day experience.  We already allow voters to travel to the most convenient Early Voting center, we should allow, as a permissive reform, Boards of Elections to allow Vote Centers on Election Day. 

(Bi-partisan support) Indicates a common goal with the NYS Elections Commissioner Association overall Legislative Agenda as Approved  by bi-partisan Elections Commissioners in January 2023.

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