Battle over voting rights for noncitizen residents in NYC elections officially enters courtroom
Local Law 11, passed by the New York City Council last December, is facing a challenge in the Richmond County State Supreme Court in Staten Island. The law would allow non-citizens who are authorized to live and work in the United States to vote in New York City’s local elections, provided they have resided in the city for at least 30 days. The law would enfranchise over 800,000 additional city voters starting next year. The plaintiffs seeking to overturn the law are led by
Wisconsin voters with disabilities say their right to vote is at risk
Last January, a Wisconsin judge in Waukesha County ruled in favor of a conservative legal group which had argued that voting drop boxes violated state election laws, as did the practice of family members or other caregivers mailing or returning a ballot on behalf of a disabled loved one. Prior to this, expanded voter access policies temporarily passed in response to COVID-19 had led to a rise in turnout among disable voters, as well as a reported decrease in the difficulties they encountered. Advocates
New York eyes its own voting rights act after failure at the federal level
As the near-term passage of federal voting rights legislation grows increasingly unlikely, voting rights advocates and state legislators in New York are amassing pressure to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York (or the NY VRA). The bill would expand multilingual ballot access beyond the minimum currently required at the federal level. It would also establish a state-level version of the now defunct “preclearance” provisions originally passed in the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965. State-level “preclearance” would require regions
After Ballot Measure Bust, State Lawmakers Make New Push For Voting Rights
New York state legislators are scrambling to extend temporary voting rights policies set to expire in 2022, after an attempt to make these measures permanent through ballot questions failed last November. Some Democrats blame a well-funded Republican campaign for the voters’ decision not to change the state’s constitution to allow for same-day voter registration and expanded mail-in ballot access. Now, New York Democrats are trying to pass a law that would push the deadline for voter registration back from 25 days before an election
New York Restores Voting Rights For Formerly Incarcerated People
New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed a bill to automatically restore voting rights to anyone who has been released from prison. Gov. Cuomo’s office has been restoring voting rights to most of the state’s parolees through executive orders, but the passage of this bill will restore these rights to even more formerly incarcerated people and much more quickly. A contentious political primary in New York is scheduled for June 22nd and anyone released from prison before May 28th will have the opportunity