ALBANY — The state Senate passed a package of election reform bills to kick off the first full week of the 2024 legislative session Monday, continuing the Democratic majority’s tradition of beginning with election rights legislation.
The collection includes bills to allow for portable polling locations, expand ballot drop-off locations, modify ballot order, establish voter suppression as a criminal offense and allow food and non-alcoholic beverages for voters waiting in line to vote.
Speaking at the state Capitol, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said the conference has worked to cut red tape and remove unnecessary barriers to the polls.
“Today's bill package continues that work by expanding early voting, making absentee ballot voting more accessible, creating the New York Voting and Elections database and, yes, allowing snacks and drinks for voters waiting in line. Hopefully, they won't have to wait too long,” she said.
Several of the bills passed the state Senate last year, but did not pass the Assembly. The new legislation also comes ahead of this year’s presidential election, a race in which former President Donald Trump has already begun to stoke fear of voter fraud.
“I cannot stop the noise and misinformation and disinformation, but I do think that people are more and more aware that there is a concerted effort to demonize democratic policies,” Stewart-Cousins said, “and that won't stop us from doing a good policy and getting our message across.”
One bill sponsored by state Senator Neil Breslin, D-Delmar, would require websites operated by political committees to include “paid for by” language similar to that required by TV commercials.
"I am proud to join with my colleagues in support of this voting reform package,” Breslin said in a statement. “With voting rights coming under attack more and more throughout our country, it has never been more apparent that we must do what we can to preserve people's fundamental right to vote."
In another effort to improve election transparency, state Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris is sponsoring legislation to ban political spending by foreign-influenced business entities in all state and local elections.
“We have done things that people will not truly appreciate, I think, for years and decades to come,” Gianaris said. “We'll start taking it for granted that voting is easy, that New York is no longer among the worst states in the country, but among the best in terms of making it easy to participate in a democracy and making the rules fair for everyone.”
State Sen. Zellnor Myrie sponsored legislation that would establish a New York voting and elections database and the creation of an academic center to maintain a statewide database for voting and election data. It would be named after longtime community activist and educator at Brooklyn's Medgar Evers College Dr. John Flateau, who died suddenly on Dec. 30.
“Throughout this country's history, there have been individuals who have taken special duty to stand up for our democracy and he was such an individual,” Myrie said. “I would not be standing here today if not for Dr. Flateau’s leadership, him paving the way for people that look like me to enter into the elected space. But, he has done so much for our democracy all across the state. That is why I'm grateful to the leader for allowing us to rename our voting elections database bill after him. And I look forward to us passing that on the floor in his legacy.”