NYPAN’S Struggle for Voting Rights: A Question of Basic Fairness
From the very birth of NYPAN in Dec. 2016, one of our top priorities has been the struggle to reform New York’s shameful and undemocratic voting laws. These laws until recently intentionally excluded millions of voters by making it difficult to register and by disallowing early voting as well as voting by absentee ballot (unless the voter had a permitted excuse). New York also has fully closed primary voting, where even voters who have no party affiliation can not decide on election day to join one party or another. All of these restrictions, not surprisingly, resulted in New York having one of the lowest rates of voter turnout in the country. And many of New York’s self-interested politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, had no problem with this total lack of democracy for the majority of their constituents.
NYPAN decided to take on this issue full force. We trained hundreds of pro-democracy activists about these laws and explained how they could be improved with measures such as two weeks of early voting, online registration, agency access to registration, and the elimination of the ridiculous 335 day deadline for party registrants to change their party enrollment. Voters in other states take these rights for granted and are often shocked to learn how the system works in New York.
NYPAN became the first and only organization in New York to put in place a statewide grassroots lobbying campaign for voting rights, where they match volunteers with legislators. The volunteers joined others in the same district and they were sent in a small team to visit the legislator in their home district.
NYPAN also helped to form the statewide reform coalition called Easy Elections NY, (now Let NY Vote) which sponsored several important lobbying efforts. Just before the close of the legislative session in June of 2018, the Easy Elections coalition, with a big push from NYPAN, held an impressive rally and day of lobbying in Albany. While they did not win the changes they had hoped for, the Democratic-controlled Assembly passed the broadest and most progressive bill in decades and many Senators introduced and signed onto similar bills in their chamber. In fact, but for the control of the state Senate by the Republicans, such reforms would have become law.
Rather than be discouraged, NYPAN and its allies launched a new and bigger campaign, with new union and community group allies and with the help of thousands of progressive individuals, all of them determined to fight for democracy in New York State. And in the following session, with legislators having to stand for re-election, they had many successes, some of which have already been implemented. Early voting, for example, is now standard in New York. Voting by absentee ballot for everyone was enacted by executive order in 2020 but will be standard very soon. Pre-registration for 17-year-olds was approved, as was the ability to vote by provisional ballot if a voter has moved within the state but forgotten to update their registration details.
NYPAN supports full, free and non-negatable voting rights, with automatic registration and whatever additional modifications would enable full voting accessibility in order to maximize citizen participation. In addition to the newly won provisions, these should include at a minimum automatic, same day and online registration; elimination of party enrollment change waiting periods, and voting eligibility for every citizen including those on parole.
NYPAN supports open discussions about, and experimentation with, alternative democratic representation & voting systems, in order to reduce the power of the two-party political system and lessen the influence of special interests and entrenched incumbency. NYPAN supports verifiable paper ballots, easier ballot access, and instant ranked run-off voting. NYPAN recently joined a lawsuit in New York City to retain the ranked choice system that residents approved by referendum, and won that case. NYPAN also demands an end to partisan gerrymandering and the establishment of independent redistricting.
NYPAN supports campaign finance reform, restrictions on large and corporate donations, closing the LLC loophole, and the closing of the revolving door between government and special interests. NYPAN supports public financing of elections so that candidates have fair access to media and debates.