New York
Ballot Security
What Politicians Say
In an indirect way, Trump made voting easier in his former home state. Trump’s attacks on elections and the Republican legislation that it inspired in other states led to Democratic legislators addressing long-standing issues with voting access in New York.
Since the 2020 election, New York lawmakers have passed a slew of bills to make it easier to register to vote; expand early voting, both in person and by mail; and ensure ballots are counted.
Still, the state continues to have less generous voting laws than other Democratic-dominated states.
New York remains one of the minority of states that does not offer no-excuse vote-by-mail, and has among the shortest in-person early voting periods among states that offer it.
In 2020, the state had the third-highest rate of rejecting mail-in ballots in the country, and a 2021 report from the state Senate found that problems in recent elections were due to “structural flaws” that have a disproportionate impact on poor, minority and disabled voters.
Ease of Voting
The New York legislature has recently passed a number of bills to improve voting access.
In 2021, the legislature expanded the state’s automatic voter registration program, which is expected to be in operation in 2023, to include students in the State University of New York system, expanded early voting, authorized the creation of a website where voters can request a mail-in ballot and automatically restored voting rights to felons upon release from prison.
Lawmakers also put constitutional amendments on the November ballot that would have allowed same-day voter registration and no-excuse vote-by-mail. Both measures failed.
In 2022, the legislature extended a pandemic-related law that allows voters to request a mail-in ballot to include “risk of contracting or spreading a disease” at the polling place.
Ballot Security
Like other Democratic-controlled states, New York has expansive standards for counting mail-in ballots. It accepts ballots received up to a week after the election, which can lead to delays in counting ballots and certifying elections that can undermine voter confidence.
A 2021 law went further, allowing mail-in ballots to be accepted if they were postmarked on Election Day. Previously, they had to be postmarked the day before the election.
Other recent laws authorized the creation of a website where voters could track the status of their mail-in ballot; allowed local elections administrations to pre-process mail ballots, which can speed up vote counting; and spelled out the process for voters to fix rejected ballots.
Some voting rights advocates say that more could be done behind the scenes as well.
In New York City, election administrators have a reputation for making basic mistakes such as sending mail-in ballots too late, mailing out defective ballots and accidentally including test ballots when reporting results of a closely watched election.
That has been a particular problem as the city recently embraced ranked-choice voting, in which voters make their picks for up to five candidates.
How Politicians Responded to the 2020 Election
On Jan. 6, three of the state’s seven Republican US representatives voted against certifying Biden electors from Arizona, and four voted against certifying Biden electors from Pennsylvania.
Representative Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking Republican in the House, has repeatedly made baseless claims about “voting irregularities” and alluded to conspiracy theories about the 2020 election while stopping short of endorsing them. She has also made debunked claims about voting in Georgia and Michigan.