Within the Margin

My return to “Within the Margin” begins with a simple request of my friends in the New York State Legislature: Please, please institute In-Person Early Voting as soon as possible.

The idea that New York (a state with a population of around 20 million, of whom 12 million are registered voters, either active or inactive) should have the overwhelming majority of its voters set to an arcane day is preposterous. New York should institute early voting beyond absentee ballots to improve the overall system, and it should do it yesterday.

This year, over 30 million people, including President Obama, voted early in-person. It is exactly the same as voting on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, it also makes voting more accessible to millions, both in and out of New York. It’s unbelievable that New York trails behind states such as Vermont and Idaho in terms of ballot access to its citizens. Voting began in Vermont 45 days prior to Election Day and ended the day before Election Day. In Ohio (Where I’d been working since June), early voting by mail and in person began on October 2nd and concluded (after much legal wrangling) on November 5th. New York, which has more voters than either state combined has a woeful system for early vote (no in person and needing an “excuse” to claim eligibility) that actively hurts its democratic process. This is a problem.

While the system in place worked for so long, the reality is expecting 12 million people to go vote on a Tuesday in November is crazy. Crazier still are some of the unforeseen events that can occur that can make Election Day a bigger mess for all involved in my beloved home state, like say, a Super Storm that’s part hurricane and part blizzard and all battering the crap out of New York City. Superstorm Sandy provides the best argument to implement in-person early voting, or at the very least “No-excuse absentee ballots,” implementation of the program would create far less strain in the future. Even then, you don’t need Sandy to provide the argument when the point can be made that Early voting expands democracy.

The nature of elections is changing, and keeping New York behind the curve is disadvantageous. This isn’t about the partisan make up of the electorate (as Democrats hold a roughly 2:1 margin in registration), but about enfranchising more people to vote. Places hit the hardest by Hurricane Sandy, such as Breezy Point, are Republican leaning. Last year, Hurricane Irene wrecked Havoc on other Republican leaning areas, had that hurricane struck a week before the election it’s ramifications would have been felt by the local party. (In no way is the preceding sentences a reflection on electoral results, but more a case for instituting Early vote so people could get their votes cast prior to the disastrous effects of Sandy this year.) Early vote still heavily favors Democrats as we get out to vote earlier for whatever reasons, but to think that Democrats will continue to hold this monopoly is asinine. Eventually the Republican Party will begin to turnout its base early and the current theorem that Dems turn out early will no longer hold true. It’s about access though, and you can never predict what can happen on an individual basis to prevent someone from voting.

Regardless of Partisan arguments, we still must institute Early Vote due to its natural advantages and absorb its largest disadvantage (the costs associated with it) as a means to an end. Speaking of the costs, lets also make it so that the electoral situation of this year never happens again in the Empire State: voters were sent to the polls at least 4 times for primaries and the General Election, that is simply unacceptable, no state that I know of sent people to the polls that often. We can mitigate some costs by consolidating Early Vote sites to 1 per County much like Ohio did this year.

There isn’t a perfect remedy to the changing nature of elections and the electorate, but it’s time the Empire State played catch up and propelled itself beyond states and become a beacon for voter access.