22 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • JUNE 2018
By STEVE LEVY
President, Common Sense Strategies
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has proposed
a New York State election reform
bill and it’s about time. But as the
old saying goes, the devil’s in the
details.
There are many derivatives to this
overarching theme. And while the
state has some of the most archaic
election laws on the books, we have
to be careful which reforms will
move us forward and which will
make matters worse. There’s no
liberal or conservative answer to the
problem; rather, it’s a mixed bag of
common sense.
YES TO EARLY VOTING
New York is a rare state, restricting
voting to just one day. Having early
voting stretch out weeks before the
election is not only expensive, but it
overlooks that so much can change
just a week before the election. The
best route is to allow for voting on
the weekend of election week, in
addition to the traditional Tuesday.
NO TO SAME-DAY
REGISTRATION
Placing the burden on nonprofessional
per diem election inspectors to
validate the eligibility for those
registering at the same time they
are voting is too much to ask. The
potential for fraud is just not worth it.
YES TO AUTOMATIC
REGISTRATION
What’s wrong with automatically
registering American citizens to vote
once they become 18, as long as this is
limited only to those with valid social
security numbers? Yes, it would give
an advantage to the Democratic
voting bloc, but more voter eligibility
is healthy for a democracy.
YES TO EASIER BALLOT
ACCESS
New York is notorious for kicking
candidates off the ballot for the
most minor technicalities. Just last
year, a candidate running for the
Nassau County Legislature was
temporarily thrown off the ballot
because his petitions stated he
was running for Nassau legislator
instead of legislature.
NO TO OPEN PRIMARIES
This is one of the trendiest,
yet most problematic, of the
proposed reforms. The only people
determining who the standardbearer
for a party should be are
the registered members of that
particular party. In 2016, there
were numerous instances in open
primary states of folks admitting
to mischievously voting in the
their opposing party’s primaries to
support a candidate they perceived
would be the weakest.
YES TO VOTER ID
President Donald Trump dramatically
overstated the extent of voter fraud.
However, the claim by Democrats
that fraud is nonexistent may be even
more dangerous. Voter fraud is rare,
but you don’t need many illegitimate
votes to tilt an entire election. Al
Franken won his U.S. Senate election
by a smaller margin (312) than the
number of votes that were suspected
as being tainted (at least 393).
When it comes to election reform, it
indeed depends on how you define
“reform.” Let’s say “yes” to greater
ballot access and opportunities
to vote, but “no” to any so-called
reforms that weaken the integrity of
the voting process.
POINT OF VIEW
ELECTION REFORM:
PROCEED WITH CAUTION
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