Background

Last month, New York passed seven important election reform bills designed to help New Yorkers access the vote safely and fairly throughout the pandemic and beyond. This package included bills to improve and expand early voting and absentee voting.  Four of those bills are on the Governor's desk, awaiting action.

Details

The bills currently awaiting action, which are listed below, would expand absentee voting and improve communication about elections with voters.  Signing these bills into law would be a significant win for NY voters.

• Senate Bill S.8370B: This legislation, sponsored by Senator Zellnor Myrie, will give voters notice of any deficiencies in their absentee ballot envelopes and an opportunity to fix them to ensure their votes can be counted.

• Senate Bill S.8015D: This legislation, sponsored by Senator Alessandra Biaggi, will define the term “illness” for the purposes of absentee voting to include instances where a voter is unable to appear personally at a polling place because there is a risk of contracting or spreading a disease-causing illness to the voter or to other members of the public.

• Senate Bill S.8783A: This legislation, sponsored by Senator Zellnor Myrie, temporarily allows the processing of absentee ballot applications prior to 30 days before the election.

• Senate Bill S6302A: Requires notice of ensuring election's date and time to be in bold type starting next year. 

Call to Action

We all can work to make a difference for New York voters this year with a simple phone call to Governor Cuomo at (518) 474-8390.  The team at Common Cause New York has graciously created a call script to make our participation as easy as possible.

Call Script

"Hello, this is [NAME] from [TOWN], and I’m calling to urge you to act swiftly and sign the 'Let New York Vote Safely' bills into law so that New York Boards of Elections have time to prepare for the November election; and New York voters are able to cast their ballots safely this year. Please sign S8015D, S8370B, S8783A, and SB6302A, so Boards of Election have the maximum amount of time to prepare for November's important election."