Democracy isn’t optional
New York voters can add a weeklong vote count to the growing list of bugs in our electoral system — kinks that must be worked out before the general election in November.
Yes, we’ve written about the unprepared, sometimes-chaotic state of American democracy before. And we’re doubtless going to write about it again, and again, until voters can be reasonably sure public officials have got it right.
Normally, when voters go to the polls, they would expect to have results that night. But that won’t happen in Tuesday’s primary, elections officials now say. An estimated 1.6 million people applied for absentee ballots after Gov. Andrew Cuomo, to his credit, lifted the usual restrictions (generally absentee voting is limited to people who are sick or out of their county on voting day). That means a massive job of logging, opening and counting ballots, a task elections boards say could take a week or more.
This matter of not having enough people to handle the work of democracy isn’t just an issue in New York.
Kentucky officials blame the pandemic for their shutting down most polls in the state, which left just one for Louisville’s Jefferson County, population 766,000.
Some suggest — with good reason— that this is the new Jim Crow. Closing polling places, purging voting records, or imposing onerous voter ID laws all has the effect, intentional or not, of suppressing the votes of minorities and poor people. Long waits for results, too, can drive a sense of frustration, leaving voters skeptical and hurting future turnout.
So states need to fix the bugs they’re supposedly just discovering. That means being sure to have enough workers to open polls and secure procedures and plenty of staff to handle mail-in ballots. And President Donald Trump and many of his fellow Republicans need to stop their unfounded claim that mail-in voting is inherently corrupt. We need to shore up faith in our electoral system, not diminish it.
As for voters, they can show this matters to them by voting in spite of any frustrations. Among the primaries in the Capital Region, two Democratic races are particularly competitive: The 108th Assembly District race between incumbent John Mcdonald and Albany County Legislator Sam Fein, and the Albany County district attorney’s contest between incumbent David Soares and attorney Matt Toporowski.
We’ve endorsed Mr. Mcdonald for the able job he’s done in office. We’ve also endorsed Mr. Soares, both for the progressive positions and actions he has taken over the years and promises to in the future, and because Mr. Toporowski was untruthful about being disciplined and asked to resign while he was an assistant district attorney.
Whomever you prefer, if you haven’t voted already, get to your poll Tuesday, wear your mask, practice social distancing, and cast your ballot, if for no other reason than to put those who run our elections on notice that you will not be deterred from exercising your right as a citizen. Oh, and wash your hands.