- Jan. 14, 2019
ALBANY — After years of lagging behind other states, New York radically overhauled its system of voting and elections on Monday, passing several bills that would allow early voting, preregistration of minors, voting by mail and sharp limits on the influence of money.
The bills, which were passed by the State Legislature on Monday evening, bring New York in line with policies in other liberal bastions like California and Washington, and they would quiet, at least for a day, complaints about the state's antiquated approach to suffrage.
Their swift passage marked a new era in the State Capitol. Democrats, who assumed full control this month after decades in which the Legislature was split, say they will soon push through more of their priorities, from strengthening abortion rights to approving the Child Victims Act, which would make it easier for victims of childhood sexual abuse to sue their assailants.
"Today we are saying to New York that we are about tearing barriers down," Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the leader of the Senate Democrats, said earlier on Monday.
"We should not fear making it easier for those who are eligible to vote, to vote," she said, adding, "We should not fear restricting the flow of money into our electoral system."
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat elected to a third term in November, is expected to sign the package of voting bills, which would also merge state and primary elections into the same day; New York was the only state that held separate state and federal primary elections last year, potentially depressing voter turnout.
Legislators also passed a major change to the way candidates can run and fund their campaigns by closing the so-called L.L.C. loophole, which has long allowed corporations to pour almost unlimited amounts of money into election races through multiple limited liability companies. Often set up by powerful real estate interests, the beneficiaries of such L.L.C.s — whose backers often are difficult to identify — have included Mr. Cuomo himself, who has received millions from such entities but has nonetheless repeatedly called for the loophole to be closed.
"We are finally beginning to see New York's elections begin — just begin — to catch up with the rest of the country," said Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, a good-government group.
For years, the State Capitol has learned to function in a perpetual equilibrium: Democrats led the Assembly, Republicans ruled the Senate, and Mr. Cuomo usually fell somewhere in between, strengthening his reputation as a centrist. Several of the voting measures that were passed on Monday had previously won the Assembly's approval, only to fail in the Senate.
Indeed, virtually nothing emerged from Albany without the benefit of a back-room handshake, with concessions on one deal facilitating an agreement on another, and neither party getting anything close to its full agenda.
But the political tenor shifted last year, when a blue wave of disenchanted Democratic voters pushed for more immediate change. As Mr. Cuomo ran for re-election in November, he became a more forceful advocate for the party; he supported Democratic candidates challenging Republican Senate incumbents, and repeatedly spoke out against the policies of President Trump. And he did so again before the votes in the Legislature on Monday, setting the stage for his annual State of the State address on Tuesday.
"I think you're going to see the most aggressive agenda that I have put forward," Mr. Cuomo said in a radio interview on WAMC on Monday morning. "Why? Because I now have the ability to get it passed with a Democratic Senate where I had a Republican Senate."
Even before the Legislature approved the changes, Mr. Cuomo had promised to expand voting hours at upstate locations, make Election Day a state holiday and ban corporate contributions, a talking point of many progressive candidates in last fall's campaigns.
He is also expected to unveil elements of his plans to embrace a "Green New Deal," a promise to prioritize a collection of environmentally minded policies, including renewable energy and avoiding the use of fossil fuels.
The sudden Democratic enthusiasm has naturally been met with skepticism from their Republican counterparts, who are now in the unfamiliar position of responding from behind.
"Democrats are racing each other to the left to get credit for being the most progressive without stopping to think about the negative ramifications," said Scott Reif, a spokesman for the minority conference. "In the meantime, hardworking New Yorkers are overtaxed and overregulated, and upstate is facing an economic emergency. It's time to find real solutions to the economic challenges facing real people."
Throughout the Capitol on Monday, there were clear signs that the old way of doing the people's business was being redefined by a crush of new members and a Democratic monopoly on power: committee meetings packed with members, hallways jammed with optimistic good-government groups and legislators touting the power of democracy in action.
The morning began with dozens of advocates crowded into a conference room on the first floor of the Capitol, with more spilling into the hallway, for what is typically a desolate meeting of the Senate elections committee. They brought posters, buttons and T-shirts, then filled the hallway outside later for a news conference to declare victory.
A subsequent gathering of the Senate Democrats was no less jubilant, with activists hoisting signs and cheering loudly, and Ms. Stewart-Cousins beginning a news conference by issuing a false plea for Republicans to take up the Democrats' bills — much as she often did when her party was in the minority.
"I'm just kidding," she said, a moment later, breaking into a wide smile.
Here's how @AndreaSCousins opened up her press conference today ...
(In case you haven't heard, Dems control the NY Senate now.)
Ms. Stewart-Cousins also issued a warning of sorts to Mr. Cuomo, noting that he had included $7 million in his executive budget the year before to finance early voting and other reforms, when the Senate Republicans had blocked those changes.
"The reality is that we expect that money to be there again," she said, "because now he has willing partners here in the Senate."
New York is also poised to pass a barrage of other bills in coming weeks that will place the state among the nation's most liberal, including plans on Tuesday to pass a pair of bills aimed at preventing so-called "conversion therapy" from being practiced on gay minors, and passing the Gender Expression Nondiscrimination Act (Genda), which prohibits discrimination based on "gender identity or expression."
Next week, the Legislature is expected to take up bills to protect and expand abortion rights, pegged to the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, which could be threatened by a more right-leaning Supreme Court.
The action in the Senate was applauded by many in the State Assembly, which had passed such protections before only to see them stall in the Republican-led Senate.
"It's really nice that a lot of the things that we've been working on, sometimes for decades, are finally going to happen," said Richard Gottfried, an assemblyman from Manhattan who is the chamber's longest serving member. "I'm happy to be cheering the Senate on."
[Despite the Democratic harmony, there are still some tricky issues ahead. Read more here.]
Mr. Cuomo's timetable for his agenda — which he also outlined in a speech in mid-December and in his inaugural address on New Year's Day — is the first 100 days of the session.
If anything, however, legislators seemed to be agitating to move even faster than the governor, passing all seven election-related bills on just their second day in session and before his State of the State address.
Part of that urgency came seemingly from past frustration; similar efforts to pass early voting, which is already legal in some form in 38 states, died amid opposition from Republicans, who already face uphill battles in elections in New York, where there are 3.5 million more registered Democrats than Republicans. And the three new bills that were passed on Monday, which would ease voter registration, may only exacerbate that gap.
Carl E. Heastie, the Bronx Democrat who leads the Assembly, made clear again on Monday that his colleagues viewed the change in election laws as an immediate priority.
"I promised to hit the ground running," Mr. Heastie said. "And I am keeping that promise."
His counterpart in the Senate agreed. "There's an amazing amount of things that had not been done," Ms. Stewart-Cousins said. "We're just going to keep it moving so that we can catch up. And move ahead, frankly."
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