Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed three bills last week to allow better voting access in the November election.
“The federal administration has ordered an unprecedented attack on the U.S. Postal Service and with COVID-19 threatening our ability to have safe, in-person voting, these measures are critical to ensuring a successful and fair election at one of the most important moments in our nation’s history,” Cuomo said in a statement. “These actions will further break down barriers to democracy and will make it easier for all New Yorkers to exercise their right to vote this November.”
The first of the three bills gives voters the right to request an absentee ballot due to risk of illness to themselves or others, including COVID-19.
The second bill authorizes voters to request absentee ballots immediately, adding almost seven weeks to the amount of time a voter has to vote by absentee ballot. This legislation eliminates a provision that prevented voters from requesting absentee ballots until 30 days before Election Day.
The last of the three bills ensures that all absentee ballots postmarked on or before Election Day on Nov. 3 or received by the Board of Elections without a postmark on the day after the election will be counted. Ballots with a postmark demonstrating that they were mailed on or before Election Day will be counted if received by Nov. 10. The legislation also amends election law to allow the Board of Elections to count all absentee ballots that have a time stamp showing they were delivered to the board the day after the election but lack a dated postmark.
“Voting access is one of the core foundations of our democracy,” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) said in a statement. “With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we must ensure that no New Yorkers feel pressured to put their health and well-being at risk to exercise their Constitutional right to vote. I thank the bill sponsors for advancing this legislation, and my Senate Democratic Majority colleagues for their ongoing commitment to empower New York voters and Governor Cuomo for signing these bills.”
