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Voting Reform Package: January 14th
After more than three decades of advocating, the New York State legislature will finally pass a package of comprehensive voting reforms that will totally transform New York's election operations!
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This package will include:
- Early voting
- Same day voter registration
- No-excuse absentee voting
- Pre-registration of 16 and 17 year olds
-Primary consolidation
- State-wide voter registration transfer
-Closure of the LLC loophole
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We are absolutely thrilled to see these reforms pass so early in the legislative session.
Here is a brief overview of how things will play out on Monday:
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The Senate Committee on Election Law will meet at 10:30 am to move the bills. From there, the bills will be put through the Rules Committee and eventually make their way to the Senate floor for passage. Once passed in the Senate, the bills will be sent to the Assembly.
The Assembly will convene at 1:00 pm and take up the bills in their own Election Law Committee. After they've passed through committee, the bills will be brought to the floor to be debated. We anticipate many hours of debate on this package of reforms. Members opposed to the bills will want to have their comments on the official record.
After passage in both houses, the bills and amendments will be sent off to the Governor to be signed into law.
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You can watch the Senate proceedings live
here.
Assembly proceedings can be viewed live
here.
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We will be joining LetNYVote and our other good government partners on January 14th at 11:00 am for a press conference on the Million Dollar staircase in the Capitol. If you would like to attend, you can RSVP and find more information
here.
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Although this is a fantastic start of our legislative session, our work is far from over. Once these reforms pass, we will begin advocating for state funding to implement these proposals. We will be reviewing any proposed regulations to the policies and giving input when necessary. In the case of no-excuse absentee voting and same day voter registration, we will continue our advocacy work in 2021 as these reforms are Constitutional amendments that require passage in two legislative sessions.
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There are still reforms that will need to be passed related to voting but this is a major first step.
Congratulations to us all for our hard work and dedication to these issues! What a way to kick off the New York State League's 100th anniversary!
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