Election reform is supposedly on the agenda for New York State lawmakers and there is massive concerted effort to make inroads on many different levels of election administration that could overall do considerable good. Common Cause, one of the major organizations fighting for election reform all across the country, has joined in the recent push including putting together a list of goals that can be used as a guide to what activists think is possible if the public can get behind efforts to support the bill. Governor Cuomo and the Democrats of New York deserve credit for their support. Take a look at Common Cause’s list:

New Yorkers deserve better-run elections. It’s time for the City and Board of Elections to institute a series of common sense reforms to help enfranchise the electorate. It’s no good waiting for Albany to act – Here’s fifteen innovative and low-cost ideas within the City and Board’s authority that would improve conditions at the polls.

I.      Increase the Number and Quality of Poll Workers by Offering Comp Time for City Employees Working the Polls.

II.      Increase Rewards for Poll Workers Who Attend Training.

III.      Enforce a Policy that Those who Miss Training or Fail the Poll Worker Test Won’t Work the Polls.

IV.      Direct City Agencies to Live up to the Promise of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and City’s Pro-Voter Law.

V.      The Board Should Use Affidavit Ballots to Create & Update Voter Registration Records.

VI.      Put Sample Ballots on the BOE Web Site.

VII.      Email Notifications of Election Dates, Deadlines and Ballots.

VIII.      Better Mailings and Additional Poll Site Notices Before Election Day.

IX.      Expand the Popular Voters Guide for State and Federal Elections.

X.      Commit to Fully Accessible Poll Sites.

XI.      Increase the Number of Accessible Voting Systems.

XII.      Translate Election Materials into Additional Languages.

XIII.      Track the Performance of the Board of Elections in the Annual Mayors Management Report.

XIV.      Webcast Meetings of the Board of Elections, Voter Assistance Commission and Campaign Finance Board.

XV.      The City Should Move to Owning its Vote Tabulating System.

Election Reform Gathers Steam

A good deal of information can also be found by looking at “a series produced by The Huffington Post, Public Campaign, and Fair Elections for New York in an effort to raise the voices of everyday people in New York State through comprehensive reform of the way elections are financed. For more information on Public Campaign, click here; for more information on Fair Elections for New York, click here.”

Ensuring everyone has the ability to make his or her voice heard at the ballot box is critical to the health of our democracy. Ensuring those voices are heard above big donors and special interest influence peddlers after Election Day is crucial too. New York has an opportunity to be a national leader in living up to the ideal of a government that is of, by and for the people. Gov. Cuomo and legislative leaders should not waste this opportunity.

New York has been holding state and local elections every two years since the American Revolution and the state has a long and storied history of corruption in government, think Tammany Hall, and the subsequent election reform efforts that have defined New York.  In “A Brief History of Full Representation in the United States“, election law expert Douglas J. Amy from Mount Holyoke College wrote about the early 20th century:

In 1936, voters in New York City adopted the single transferable vote method of proportional representation. In the election immediately preceding STV’s adoption, the Democrats won 95.3% of the seats on the Board of Alderman with only 66.5% of the vote. In 1941, proportional representation gave the Democrats 65.5% of the seats on 64% of the vote, with the Republicans and three smaller parties also gaining seats in proportion to their voting strength. The system has since been repealed. However, the Conservative Party and Liberal Party continue to participate in the electoral system through electoral fusion.

In some areas, very little has changed. According to information on the Board of Elections in the City of New York website:

New York disenfranchises felons both while they are in prison and while they are on parole. The Sentencing Project favors restoring these rights. New York allows absentee ballots for “registered voters who cannot make it to the polls on Election Day because of occupation, business, studies, travel, imprisonment (other than a convicted felon), illness, disability and hospitalization or resident in a long term care facility”. In both 2006 and 2007, bills were introduced in the New York Legislature to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact and award the state’s 31 electoral votes to the winner of the nationwide popular vote. Both proposals failed.

A new party or independent candidate may gain ballot access for one election by collecting a set number of petition signatures for each office (or 5 percent of the votes cast for governor in the most recent election in the jurisdiction, if that is lower). A new party that wins 50,000 votes for governor is recognized statewide as a political party and qualifies to participate in primary elections for four years. This total can be and often is obtained through electoral fusion. Candidates may gain access to primary election ballots by being “designated” by a relevant committee of the party or collecting signatures equal to 5 percent of the party’s enrollment in the jurisdiction, up to a set number for each office. A candidate seeking the nomination of a party to which she or he does not belong – e.g. for purposes of fusion – must be authorized by a relevant committee of the party. Reformers would like to see the ballot access laws loosened.