Opinion: A rapid-response tool to ensure voter rights and fight suppression

By now, many of us are well aware of Republican-led efforts across the country to suppress the vote. Under the guise of preventing “voter fraud,” states from Florida to Wisconsin have conspired to kneecap voter outreach groups, limit access to absentee ballots, eliminate ballot drop boxes and even make it a crime to offer water to voters in line. 

In New York, we’ve strived to take a different approach. After decades in which the state’s voting laws failed to align with our values, we’ve created nation-leading voter protections by passing the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act, establishing a permanent vote-by-mail system, restoring voting rights to parolees and approving other crucial reforms.

This hard-won progress is undercut, however, by the fact that we have no rapid-response solution to voting interruptions at poll sites. 

New York’s current approach to poll site shutdowns is outdated and too narrowly defined. The 48-year-old law only applies to general elections when a board of elections determines that, as a consequence of a natural disaster, less than 25% of registered voters in a municipality were able to vote. When that happens, the 1976 law calls for a full additional day of voting, which must be publicized via mail and print newspapers.

But that narrow definition excludes many scenarios that could impact voting, from unreasonably long lines and medical emergencies to bomb threats, equipment malfunctions, flooding, violence and false fire alarms. And several recent incidents have made clear the need for a more responsive approach to disruptions that fall short of existing requirements but still risk disenfranchising voters.

On the final day of early voting in the 2022 general election, for example, a bomb threat at an East Harlem poll site shut down voting for over two hours. The Board of Elections denied a request to extend voting time, and no official report documenting the incident was issued. 

The following year, a technical malfunction on the first day of early voting of the 2023 general election temporarily shut down poll sites across Orange County. Although the shutdown lasted only an hour, voters were turned away without being given an estimate of when to return and without being offered provisional or absentee ballots. Once again, the local board of elections denied a request to extend voting time. One race in this cycle was eventually decided by a single vote.

These incidents can prevent New Yorkers from voting, but existing law offers no real solution. There are other problems, too: boards of elections may have little incentive to act when one party stands to benefit from lower voter turnout. Instead, boards often deadlock along partisan lines, leaving enforcement to election lawyers who rush to the courthouse seeking judicial orders and praying they get them in time.

That’s why we’ve introduced legislation to create a new, automatic remedy to voting disruptions. Here’s how it would work: if voting is disrupted for more than fifteen minutes, the local board of elections would be required to track how long the interruption lasted and extend voting hours by the same amount of time at the end of that same day or, if necessary, on a different day. They would also be required to publicize the new hours and any change in location to affected voters. 

Local boards of elections could vote to override this protocol if they choose, but in order to do so, they would need to notify the State Board of Elections and the state Attorney General and publicly offer justification for their decision.

This bill fixes the political problem that prevents local boards from extending voting hours while disincentivizing bad actors trying to suppress the vote. And it offers an objective remedy to ensure poll site disruptions don’t rob New Yorkers of the opportunity to exercise their basic rights.

Such time extenders are already familiar to election officials, campaign lawyers and advocates, and are frequently granted by judges. Instead of squandering precious time awaiting judicial action, this relief can be provided automatically based on readily-available information. It’s a commonsense solution to unanticipated incidents that risk distorting election outcomes and infringing on civil rights.

Across the country, Republicans are working overtime to disenfranchise voters. Here in New York, let’s work to give precious time back to voters instead.