Should NY’s polls be open before Election Day?
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- November
- 7
Should New Yorkers only be able to vote in person on Election Day or, like dozens of other states, should they be allowed to cast ballots in the days leading up to the election? That’s one of the questions Gov. David Paterson is asking Secretary of the State Lorraine Cortes-Vazquez to look into.
“Tuesday’s historic election saw a record number of New Yorkers go to the polls to cast their ballot. We are a better, stronger democracy when more citizens participate in elections,” the governor wrote to Cortes-Vazquez, asking for a report within 60 days on how the state will increase voter participation.
Specifically, he wants to know the potential benefits, disadvantages and costs of moving toward an early voting system, including easing the process of filing absentee ballots, extending the number of days people can vote, and mail-in voting. Thirty-one states offer some form of (in-person) early voting, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The governor also wants an assessment of participation in Tuesday’s elections, the effectiveness of boards of elections and the most pressing barriers to voting. Finally, he wants an update on the state’s efforts to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act.
Barbara Bartoletti of the New York League of Women Voters said her group supports early voting and what’s known as no-excuse absentee ballots (New York requires people to give an excuse for this type of voting, such as illness, but many other states don’t). Voter participation increases when more opportunities to cast ballots are provided, she said.
“We think New York owes it to its voters to allow early voting so that we can experience even higher turnout,” she said.
Detractors have said early voting can lead to fraud. Bartoletti said there is no documented evidence of fraud connected with early voting in this week’s election.
On the Help America Vote Act, passed in the wake of the 2000 presidential voting debacle, New York is the last state to fully implement the law. HAVA’s purpose is to modernize elections and enable people with disabilities to vote independently. New York is under court order to replace its decades-old mechanical-lever voting machines by 2009, but state officials have said for many weeks that the timeline is in jeopardy.
The state had another setback last week, when the U.S. Election Assistance Commission suspended the certification of Systest, the company that has been testing and certifying new machines for New York. Testing has been suspended in the meantime, and the state Board of Elections is in limbo. The state hired Systest after having problems with its first testing company.
This entry was posted
on Friday, November 7th, 2008 at 6:53 pm by Cara Matthews.
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There should NOT be early voting anywhere. Potentially, decision-changing events can happen in the last week or two of a campaign.
But I also believe voting in presidential election years should be changed to one entire weekend—and not remain as a single Tuesday.
I think early voting would greatly improve voter participation and should be introduced in New York. I also don’t think the last week or two of what is now a twenty-one month presidential election cycle.
Jiminy’s got it right. However, by the time the leftist get done, you’ll be registering in your local bar or opium den and voting on Facebook or your Ipods. People who have no interest whatsoever in putting themselves out a bit to register and vote are indubitably people who know nothing worth knowing, have no regard for anything except their venal personal interests, and are the one true danger to an effective, sensible democracy.
Politics101…The extreme length of the campaign, while tedious and aggravating, has nothing to do with what I was talking about—that unanticipated events in the last week or two could impact or change the decisions of some voters.
I’m for making presidential elections a full weekend, but dead set against “early voting.” SmartPorpoise summed up that one quite well.
smartporpoise said, “People who have no interest whatsoever in putting themselves out a bit to register and vote are indubitably people who know nothing worth knowing”
I do understand but disagree with your contempt for people that don’t make the polls on election day. Remember that on average only fifty to at most sixty percent (depending on how you calculate it) percent of eligible voters make it to the polls for presidential elections. That does not include this year of course, which I believe was in the low sixty percentile. Imagine if early voting was not available during earlier presidential elections, then the fifty to sixty percent would be even lower.
There are all sorts of reason that people cannot make it to the polls on a certain day. How about every person in the country that went to an emergency room on election day at three a.m. and was then admitted in the hospital.
How about the person that planned to go after work, but the job had an emergency that demanded your attention. I could go on and on about life situations and yes some people will never vote and that’s on them. The fact of the matter is that we should make it as easy as possible to vote and we are currently in the prehistoric ages in New York.
Jiminy Cricket, I did not finish my first statement. My understanding is that you are suggesting that it would serve well for a potential voter to wait until the last second to vote because with early voting some major occurrence may happen that convinces you that you voted for the wrong person after you have already cast your vote. You would therefore be unable to change your vote…that is my understanding of you post. I suggest that after twenty-one months most people have already heard what they need and have made up their minds. If you are still an undecided voter, then take the extra couple of weeks, but why not make it easier for eligible voters.
The only possible way the last week of a twenty-one week campaign is going to have an effect is if there is a debate in the last week…like the Reagan campaign years ago. However, as we now know, McCain’s senior adviser Steve Schmidt and other advisors contemplated telling McCain BEFORE the last debate that the campaign was effectively over, but decided not to. That was about three weeks before the election date.
Please read my last post for further explanation
Politics: The weekend thing should cure that; and hospitals (and jails for those caught driving drunk on election day) shouldn’t have a problem storing “absentee” ballots for those so confined.
Politics101 wants to make voting for a president as casual as going to a movie. If someone cares enough to vote, and “gets” that voting is a right and a responsibilty, they can go on Election Day, or as I suggested—make presidential elections an entire weekend. This doesn’t mean there can’t be absentee ballots.
And yes, something can happen the last week or two to change minds. For example, let’s say Iran attacked Israel ten days ago. Do you think Obama would have won?
With the Neville Chamberlain bowler hat and umbrella attitudes that seem to have become more pervasive here lately, in this proposed scenario, one wouldn’t be surprised if Obama won by an even larger margin.
Here’s a surprise – I’m a Democrat and I don’t want early voting either….
I believe we should hold the vote on the weekend, Saturday-Sunday. Voting during a work is hard for some, and if the vote is held on a weekend-you’ll have more volunteers to get out the vote.
Echoing Jiminy, I don’t think we should have early voting-something may come up about a candidate that might change your mind.
And, after hearing about ACORN registrating voters more than once, I would like us to do what they did in Afghanistan and have the voters’ thumbs dipped in purple ink-although I would make certain you couldn’t get it off for two days-just to make certain that it is one person, one vote.
I don’t type as fast as I think.
The above sentence should read: “Voting during the work day/week is hard for some”
early voting does two things..it allows those who have
other committments on the one day set aside for election
to participate fully in the democratic process.it also
takes the pressure off election workers on election
day by decreasing turnout on the one day and spreading
it around…whether or not it enhances voter participation
remains to be see
Democrat Majority leader Harry Read hates early voting. He also hates various registration techniques.
If they really wanted to increase turnout they would do what Jiminy suggested and thats put it n the weekend for Sat/Sun or even better make it a national holiday on a Tues or Wed and close lots of businesses to give people nothing to do but vote. Also putting it in the middle of the week is the best move because it prevents people from using the holiday as a “long weekend” etc…
Early voting is a bonus for most states and voters but I am not thoroughly behind 1 to 2 week early voting. Thats seems a bit much.
Also I am tired of hearing all the whining from those who couldn’t be bothered to register then tried to vote. If you can’t take the 2 minutes it takes to go to the post office and fill out a card then odds are you don’t care about voting all that much.
“While Obama received record votes from the expanded minority communities, that alone would not have led to victory had he not also secured so much support among the growing professional class — and in doing so went beyond the successful 1996 coalition that also climbed the income ladder to include newly targeted soccer moms. Back then, President Clinton got 38 percent of the vote among those making over $100,000. This year Obama earned 49 percent of that vote. He also got 52 percent of a new polling category — those making over $200,000 a year who were no longer among the top 1 percent of earners, as they had been in past elections, but were now the top 6 per cent.
These new professionals in software, the media, consulting, and mid-management have now declared themselves to be Democrats. After seeing Clinton and Bush back to back, they have switched their votes as part of a rejection of the religious right, the war in Iraq, and laissez-faire economics.
The history of revolution usually parallels the history of rising, not falling incomes, and the middle class revolutions of 1848 brought many countries the democratic system in the first place. In the Obama revolution, the upper-classing of America took a front seat – the central question is whether they will remain there.”
Mark J. Penn served as chief adviser to President Bill Clinton in the 1996 presidential election and to Hillary Rodham Clinton during her Senate and presidential races. He is the author of “Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind
this is a huge change in those who now do not consider
themselves republicans
Early Voting is bad for many of the reasons mentioned above. It is difficult to discern why the goal should be to increase voter turnout. If the goal was to increase voter turnout, we could make voting mandatory. We haven’t because it’s wrong. Those who want to vote, should and those who do not want to, should not.
As for people having trouble voting on Tuesday that what’s they have absentee voting for. Increasing voter turnout amongst those that are uninformed or apathetic is not really a noble goal.
To decrease the strain on election workers, how about hiring people who are competent to work the polls instead of the hacks they do and opening a few more polling stations?