Governor Andrew Cuomo is pushing a new package of election changes for the empire state. Cuomo has, at least in public, supported some of the measures before including reducing “outside influence in state elections, automatic voter registration, election-day voter registration and early voting”. Most of these changes are sorely needed to boost low turnout. The following is from the article, What you should know about Cuomo’s 2018 election reform agenda, by Robert Harding from the The Citizen. Take a look:

As he has in past years, Cuomo wants to allow early voting in New York… Cuomo’s plan would require every county to open at least one polling location during the 12 days prior to Election Day. The polling site must be open at least eight hours on weekdays and five hours on weekends. There should be one early voting site for every 50,000 residents in the county.

Another proposal is automatic voter registration. For example, if you fill out a form at the Department of Motor Vehicles, your information will be relayed to the county Board of Elections and you will be automatically registered to vote. There will be an option if you do not wish to register to vote. Cuomo is also pushing for same-day voter registration. The state doesn’t allow voters to register on Election Day. Same-day voter registration is permitted in 13 states and the District of Columbia.

The following is from an excerpt from the article by from the , a newspaper based in Ohio. Take a look at the article titled, Governor Cuomo Proposes More Disclosure for Online Political Ads in New York

The proposal, to be announced on Thursday, closely hews to a federal bill introduced in October by a pair of Democratic senators — Mark Warner of Virginia and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota — and Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona. That bill, the Honest Ads Act, would require internet companies to reveal who is paying for political advertising on their sites by amending federal election law, which dates to the early 1970s, to include “paid internet or paid digital communication.” Print, radio and television are already subject to such regulations.

The list of changes intended to increase security include:

• Expand New York State’s definition of political communication to include paid internet and digital advertisements.
• Require digital platforms to maintain a public file of all political advertisements purchased by a person or group for publication on the platform.
• Require online platforms to make reasonable efforts to ensure that foreign individuals and entities are not purchasing political advertisements in order to influence the American electorate.

Governor Andrew Cuomo was quoted summing up his thoughts on the proposal:

“What we saw during the last election was a systematic effort to undermine and manipulate our very democracy, With these new safeguards, New York — in the strongest terms possible — will combat unscrupulous and shadowy threats to our electoral process, as well as break down fundamental barriers that for far too long have prevented New Yorkers from being heard and from exercising their right to vote.”