Failure of Ballot Questions Halts New York's Three-Year Expansion of Voting

*Reposted from Gotham Gazette. Written by  Ethan Geringer-Sameth*

When New Yorkers voted down two state constitutional amendments this fall that would make it easier to vote they put a stunning stop to a three-year deluge of major statewide election reform.

Voting rights advocates and Democratic state lawmakers are licking their wounds and looking ahead to the next legislative session, beginning in January, with a list of changes to election rules and operations, including some of the measures that just failed.

Had they been passed by voters after having been passed by two consecutive classes of the Democrat-led State Legislature, the amendments would have enshrined or paved the way for universal absentee voting – a pandemic-era provision with a year-end expiration date – and "same-day voter registration,” which allows people to register and cast a ballot on the same day.

Despite support among New York City voters, they failed statewide after a well-funded campaign by conservatives in the suburbs and upstate stoked unfounded fears of voter fraud, one that unfolded against a national backdrop of unproven election claims by former President Donald Trump. It caught Democrats flat-footed: the Conservative Party spent roughly $3 million, about ten times what State Senate Democrats spent, in advertising to defeat the two proposals and a third related to state and federal reapportionment and redistricting.

For entire article visit: https://www.gothamgazette.com/state/10970-new-york-three-years-expandin…