Don’t botch this election
This November’s election will be like no other in American history.
Because of the coronavirus, boards of elections across New York and the nation will face unprecedented numbers of ballots arriving by mail. Many boards may lack the money and staff needed to efficiently count them. The result may be confusion, if not chaos.
This isn’t a partisan concern. Supporters of Donald Trump and Joe Biden alike should want a fair and accurate count. Faith in democracy depends on faith in our elections and the sanctity of the ballot. It’s no more complicated than that.
But there’s reason to worry whether elections boards in New York are ready, especially after the embarrassingly botched New York City primary in June, in which election results for a congressional seat came only after six weeks. The delay was largely the result of a huge expansion in mailed ballots from voters seeking to safeguard their health. A six-week wait is frustrating to all, but more troubling was the relatively high percentage of mailed ballots that were tossed for minor technical errors.
As a test run for November, the June election failed mightily. It was a red flag.
There is some good news: A settlement announced this week following a League of Women Voters lawsuit should reduce the number of discarded ballots. Notably, the agreement the organization reached with the state specifies that voters will be contacted if their ballot is rejected and told how to fix the problem. In the past, voters didn’t even know if their ballot was invalidated.
More good news: Fears of a critical shortage of poll workers have been eased somewhat by a f lood of volunteers willing to do the work.
Yet it is still not clear that boards of elections across the state have the resources needed for the unprecedented demands they’ll face in November. To avert a repeat of the June fiasco, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers must act to ensure election officials have what they need, rather than leave them to go scrounging for private grants. This is a fundamental function of government, not a charitable cause.
The governor should also issue an executive order for pre-paid postage on ballots, as he did for the June election. The order would remove an inconvenience for voters and would protect older voters who might be especially disinclined to venture out in the midst of a pandemic, whether to vote or to buy stamps.
Solidly blue New York is not expected to be in play in the presidential election. But that doesn’t mean the state can afford a repeat of the long delays seen in June, nor does it mean that the responsibility to count and value every vote is any less important.
Remember that the entire state Legislature, both the Senate and Assembly, is also on the ballot this November, as is the state’s delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives.
At a time when polls reveal declining faith in institutions and in the accuracy and fairness of elections, New York needs to act now to ensure the election count is as smooth as possible. New York must get this right.