Voters showed smarts, courtesy in library vote

The Island Now

Recently, people seem to be arguing about when to hold an election almost as much as who and what to vote for.

We’ve been seeing disputes about the Nevada, New Hampshire and New York presidential primary dates, the dates of the local Great Neck library and Coliseum votes, the date for the Egyptian election, and the primary date for New York State non-presidential (Congressional, state and local) races.

Of course, my favorite quip about when we should vote is: “If Election Day was held on April 15th, everyone would vote Republican.”

But seriously, election date issues deserve some thoughtful discussion. Here are a few thoughts on this. I’d also love to hear this newspaper’s other letter writers’ opinions on this issue.

In general, I believe that early primary dates assure fairer general elections. If a hotly-contested primary is held late in the election cycle, it is extremely difficult for the primary victor to mount a winning general election campaign.

New York State’s current compressed election calendar is case in point. In New York, primaries for non-presidential elections are currently held in mid-September – only seven weeks before the general election. This means that an exhausted primary winner only has 49 days to raise significant general election funds (from donors who waited to see who would win the primary before deciding who to contribute to) and to switch gears from battling his or her primary opponents to running in the general election.

Also, challengers face primaries far more often than incumbents. Thus, late primaries give incumbents an extra advantage (in addition to the financial and other advantages of incumbency).

Even more importantly, late primaries delay the printing of absentee ballots for general elections, and can leave insufficient time for soldiers serving our country overseas to receive and return their absentee ballots.

To address this concern, the federal Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (“MOVE”) Act, enacted in 2009, requires primaries to be held at least 80 days prior to a general election, and requires absentee ballots to be transmitted to overseas and military voters at least 45 days before elections (both general and primary elections).

Despite the MOVE Act, New York’s non-presidential primaries have (so far) still been held in mid-September. New York State received a federal Justice Department waiver from complying with the MOVE Act in 2010. The waiver also permitted New York to send out absentee ballots later than the MOVE Act requires. Sadly, more than half of New York’s counties appear to have missed this later deadline. Gov. Cuomo asked for another waiver for 2012 (due to confusion that may be caused by changing the election calendar and redistricting all in the same year).

Fortunately, New York State’s compressed election calendar (which is set by the New York State Election Law) may be changing soon. The requested 2012 MOVE Act waiver has not been granted yet. And in late September, the U.S. Justice Department sought a court order requiring New York to move its primary date earlier, to comply with the MOVE Act. The court hearing on this has been delayed several times, and is now scheduled for Nov. 17. Meanwhile, state legislators are bickering over whether to move the nonpresidential primary date to mid-August or late June.

There are some other considerations that affect the choice of a primary date in New York. Currently, petitions for placing candidates’ names on major parties’ ballot lines need to be collected during a six-week period starting in early June. An earlier primary date would move “petition season” earlier. If the primary date is moved to June, petition season could be moved to January, a time when weather conditions could make going door-to-door to collect petition signatures very difficult. We may need to examine the entire New York petition process and calendar.

Turning to national elections: Unfortunately, the MOVE Act was recently used in a way that makes presidential candidates’ lives more difficult, and that reduces New Yorkers’ influence on presidential candidate selection.

In July, New York adopted a law moving its presidential primary later – from “Super Tuesday” in early February to Tuesday, April 24, 2012. The MOVE Act’s requirement that ballots must be transmitted to overseas and military voters at least 45 days before elections was cited as the reason for this change.

However, there seems to be no real reason why absentee ballots could not be mailed out 45 days before Super Tuesday. During the battle about the New York presidential primary date, Republicans suggested moving the date only slightly later, to early March – while Democrats sought to move the presidential primary date much later, to May.

Late presidential primaries have the same impact as late primaries for other races: the later the winner of the presidential primaries is chosen, the more difficult it is for him or her to win in the general election. Also, moving New York’s presidential primary date later reduces New York’s ability to influence the selection of presidential candidates, since candidate decisions as to whether to remain in the presidential race are usually determined by the early primaries.

Turning to the international front: In Egypt, it was initially thought that early elections (originally scheduled for September) would unfairly favor the already well-organized radical Muslim Brotherhood’s so-called “Freedom and Justice Party” at the expense of other nascent parties, and that a delay would bring more democratic secular parties to the fore.

However, so far, the delay of the Egyptian elections to November does not seem to have helped. If anything, polls and recent events (including radical Muslims’ recent brutal massacres of Egyptian Christian Copts) show that Egypt’s most radical Islamist party is continuing to gain power.

Other steps besides an election date change are needed to curb the Muslim Brotherhood’s dominance, including cutting and/or properly targeting foreign aid, for starters.

Turning to local elections: Cost and assuring voter turnout are critical considerations when choosing an election date.

For instance, voter turnout at local school board elections is extremely low (less than 2,000 voters vote in Great Neck school budget elections), in part because the elections are held on a date in May that most citizens are unaware of or forget. The library, park district, and coliseum votes also risk(ed) low voter turnout and incur(red) extra taxpayer costs. To the extent possible, we should try to schedule all local elections – school budget, library, etc. – on the same day as the statewide primary or general elections.

Of course, the worst date for an election is an election that never occurs at all. Taxpayers should be permitted to vote on critical issues that affect us. For instance, the citizens of North Hempstead should be permitted to vote on the Town of North Hempstead’s costly, controversial proposed purchase and renovation of the Roslyn Country Club.

Happy Election Day!

Elizabeth Berney, Esq.

Great Neck

 

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