Under conditional pardons the governor began issuing in 2018, more than 60,000 people on parole had their voting rights restored. But only a few thousand have registered to vote, and more than 10,000 have lost their rights because of parole violations.
Growth in the voter list is running at half the 2016 pace.
Following a chaotic June 23 primary count in which more than 84,000 mail-in ballots were invalidated, some lawmakers are pushing for new options for voters who want to avoid polling places.
‘We have the opportunity to protect our democracy by passing the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York.’
New Yorkers with disabilities had mixed reactions to the accessible absentee ballot option that the state Board of Elections (BOE) implemented for the June 23 primary.
‘In our conversations with Gen Z New Yorkers about what keeps them from the polls, they cite three main factors: socioeconomic barriers, a sense of personal or community disenfranchisement, and a lack of civic education.’
While advocates are happy they won this concession, it only applies to the June 23 primary. A lawsuit to make absentee voting in future elections accessible is ongoing.
‘I was clear that I would be voting for the Public Advocate and the Queens District Attorney, but I did not know that there would be all these strange questions and other things about the courts, so what I did was choose all the Democrats I saw who were women,’ one voter told El Diario.
The big wrinkle for registered voters concerns the 2020 elections.
‘Ranked Choice Voting is a simple but powerful change to our election system that will ensure those elected to office have the support of a majority of their electorate—and are responsible to a broad base, not just the loudest few.’
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