Ahead Of The June Primary, Cuomo Directs Board Of Elections To Mail Voters Absentee Ballot Applications

Because of concerns that large public gatherings--including elections--can accelerate the spread of COVID-19, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Friday a new executive order directing Board of Elections offices across the state to mail voters a postage-paid absentee ballot application so they can more easily request a ballot and vote by mail in the upcoming primary.

The measure follows another executive order issued earlier this month that made illness due to COVID-19, or the risk of contracting it, a valid reason to apply for an absentee ballot. The state constitution sets strict parameters for when a voter is eligible to vote absentee.

“If you want to vote, we should send you a ballot so you can vote, and you don't have to come out and get on line,” Cuomo said at his news briefing on Friday. But he noted voters will still have the option to vote in person at a poll site.

The latest executive order is intended to ease the voting application process as the state is currently on PAUSE. Previously, a voter needed to call, email, or mail a request to their respective local Board of Elections office asking for one to be sent to them.

“All we’re doing is making this more convenient so that people who don’t have access to the internet don’t want to leave their homes because of fear of COVID, are able to get an application sent directly to them, with the return postage, to get the absentee ballot that our earlier executive order allowed for,” added Melissa DeRosa, secretary to the governor.

Earlier in the week, there were some reports that the state was considering a full vote-by-mail system. DeRosa said the administration decided that option was beyond what the governor could legally do under the state’s constitution.

Dustin Czarny, Onondaga County Elections Commissioner and chair of the New York State Elections Commissioner Association’s Democratic caucus, said the hybrid system Cuomo is ready to implement is the most feasible option right now.

“There are 1.2 million inactive voters in New York. These are people we don’t have proper addresses for, and their only option is to show up on Election Day,” said Czarny. (The state Board of Elections was sued over how it handles the names of inactive voters at the polls and will be required to have a book with those names at a poll site so voters can ensure they are casting an affidavit ballot in the right location.) He also said maintaining in-person voting will help voters with disabilities who need to use a ballot-marking device to cast their vote.

Once the latest order takes effect, absentee ballot applications will be mailed out to registered voters ahead of the June 23rd primary where voters will decide their party’s nominee for state and federal races. The New York City Board of Elections was deciding candidates for its ballot earlier this week.

The upcoming primary includes the race for the 14th Congressional District currently held by Bronx/Queens Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who faces two Democratic challengers, and the heavily crowded 15th Congressional District in the Bronx, where at least nine candidates are vying for the seat long-held by Congressman Jose Serrano, who’s retiring.

The marquee contest was supposed to be the Democratic presidential primary, which the governor moved from April 28th to June 23rd. But the state Board of Elections is scheduled to meet on Monday to decide whether to cancel the presidential primary in New York since all the other candidates, besides former Vice President Joe Biden, have suspended their campaigns. That move is facing opposition from some supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders, the last to drop out of the race.

If the state Board decides to suspend the presidential primary contest, that means 20 counties out the 62 in the state will not have a primary to run next month, Czarny told Gothamist/WNYC.

The governor’s announcement about the absentee ballot applications comes after a number of primaries in other parts of the country proceeded, with large gatherings formed as a result. The outbreak has so far sickened over 940,000 people across the United States and killed more than 54,000 Americans, according to the latest tally on Sunday morning from John Hopkins University.

On the heels of that order, Cuomo issued another executive order canceling the May 25th special election race for Brooklyn’s 37th Council District seat vacated by Rafael Espinal Jr. No new date has been announced yet.

New York is among 17 states across the country that have since rescheduled their primaries because of COVID-19 fears. Others that went ahead with the original primary date included Florida, where two poll workers were later confirmed to have been diagnosed with COVID-19, and Wisconsin, where voting went ahead as scheduled after Governor Tony Evers lost a legal battle to delay the primary until June.

A defining photo of our current time....

captured in Milwaukee today by @Pmcknightnews, an intern with the @journalsentinel. pic.twitter.com/pCFjhOPuep

— Dianne Gallagher (@DianneG) April 7, 2020

A spokesperson for the New York City Board of Elections declined to comment Friday afternoon noting that the governor’s executive order had not yet been published.

Good government groups offered initial praise for Cuomo’s announcement. “This action will go a long way to ensure that this coming June, New Yorkers aren’t asked to choose between their health and their vote,” said Citizens Union Executive Director Betsy Gotbaum in a statement.