N.Y. Ballot Proposals on Voting and Redistricting Are Rejected (original) (raw)

New York|Why New Yorkers Rejected Ballot Proposals on Voting and Redistricting

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/03/nyregion/ny-ballot-measures.html

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Republicans worked hard to defeat the measures, which aimed to broaden ballot access and change the redistricting process. Democrats did little to promote them.

The New York Conservative Party, a prominent third party in the state, spent millions of dollars on ads to defeat the ballot initiatives, while Republicans traveled the state to campaign against them.Credit...Janice Chung for The New York Times

Published Nov. 3, 2021Updated Nov. 8, 2021

In October, New York’s Republican and Conservative Parties went nuclear.

Eager to rally their bases in an off-year election, and concerned about ballot initiatives that they considered a threat, the parties devised a two-pronged offensive. The Conservative Party spent about $3 million, according to its chairman, on television and radio ads arguing that the initiatives were tantamount to corruption. Republicans mounted a whistle-stop “Just Say No” tour that traversed 40 counties in 10 days. By comparison, Democrats spent and did little.

At issue were three of five proposed constitutional amendments listed on the back of voters’ ballots. The first would have required that, for redistricting purposes, incarcerated New Yorkers be counted at their last place of residence. But the League of Women Voters of New York and the Conservative Party argued the measure would have also reduced the power of minority parties in the redistricting process.

Another proposal would have eliminated a rule requiring voters to register at least 10 days before an election, while yet another would have removed a rule requiring voters to provide an excuse — such as that they are leaving town or incapacitated — when requesting an absentee ballot.

All three measures failed on Election Day, according to The Associated Press.

Voters opposed the three proposals from Niagara County in Western New York to Nassau County on Long Island. They passed in four of New York City’s five boroughs, but not by particularly large margins. Many New York City voters did not vote on the ballot questions at all. Staten Island, as usual, was the odd borough out. All three measures failed there.

Two other ballot proposals fared better. One that passed would preserve in the State Constitution the “right to clean air, clean water, and a healthful environment.” Another that passed is meant to make courts run more efficiently by doubling the monetary limit for claims filed in New York City civil court.

But the defeat of the voting and redistricting proposals represented yet another blow for a Democratic Party reeling from electoral losses in New York and Virginia and an unexpectedly tight governor’s race in New Jersey.

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