Vote of confidence

What messed up New York’s June 23 primary wasn’t that ballots were sent to everyone, as longtime (until recently) New York absentee voter D. Trump wrongly claims. Only people who requested absentee ballots were sent one. And it wasn’t that ballots were lost by the U.S. Postal Service, which now, fingers crossed, won’t be gutted by Trump’s postmaster general lackey.

The problems were unrealistic mailing schedules and an absentee ballot system built for a tiny handful of voters suddenly overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of voters who rightly want to vote by mail to avoid COVID.

To aid the fall vote, Gov. Cuomo should sign the five bills on this desk. One makes fear of a disease a reason to vote by mail, codifying an earlier executive order and bringing New York in line with most other states. Another removes the provision that absentee ballots cannot be requested until 30 days before Election Day.

Good: Let people request ballots now. But more must be done, either by new executive orders or legislation. The deadline for absentee requests must be moved up to at least Oct. 20, as the current Oct. 27 date isn’t enough time for the mail.

Another critical change is to flag names in the poll books of those who request absentees, making anyone who subsequently shows up vote by affidavit. This would speed tally times tremendously and permit the immediate counting of all absentees when they arrive, instead of waiting for a week after polls close.

It can work.