For ads-free news, click here.
From an opinion editorial published by the New York Post:
So much for “no means no.” That’s the message from the state Court of Appeals, which ruled last week that New Yorkers don’t need an excuse to cast an absentee ballot by mail when they’re otherwise able to vote in person — even though the voters themselves have directly rejected such a measure.
Mail-in voting is hardly a revolutionary idea: Oregon since 2000 has conducted elections exclusively by mail, and several other states have followed, including Vermont.
But it involves an important balancing act, as state officials seek to maximize election participation while minimizing — to varying levels of success — fraud.
That’s what made the new ruling from New York’s top court so problematic.
In 2021, state lawmakers put a proposal to allow no-excuse absentee voting on the ballot in a referendum — and voters defeated it by a 10-point margin.
Instead, they left in place New York’s decades-old rules that let people vote absentee only if they were ill or physically disabled, or outside the county on Election Day.
The op-ed, written by Ken Girardin, explains that New York lawmakers “went rogue” and passed a law allowing the no-excuse absentee voting by simply calling it “early mail voting.”
The legislation was challenged in court, but the court went along with the scheme in a 6-1 ruling, allowing it to stand.
Chief Judge Rowan Wilson claimed in the ruling, “It is not certain that the Constitution ever required in-person voting.”
CLICK HERE to read more.
The Dennis Michael Lynch Podcast archive is available below, with the most recent on top. Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the show by downloading The DML News App or go to Apple Podcasts.
