In 2004, state legislator Andrea Stewart-Cousins faced nine-term Republican Nick Spano in a state Senate election. The election was very close, certified in favor of Spano by 18 votes

Berg, Jarrett

Landy, Rachel

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A Way to Guarantee Voting Rights

LARC Cardoso Law (Yeshida Univ)

Yeshiva University, Cardozo School of Law LARC @ Cardozo Law Online Publications Faculty 6-8-2021 A Way to Guarantee Voting Rights Rachel Landy Jarrett Berg Follow this and additional works at: https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/faculty-online-pubs  Part of the Election Law Commons A way to guarantee voting rightsOn a technicality, more than 13,800 ballotscast in the correct county were disquali ed inthe 2020 Election.Photo: Fernando Martinez / ImpremediaBy: Jarrett Berg and Rachel Landy Updated Jun 08, 2021, 12:23 pmEDTIn 2004, state legislator Andrea Stewart-Cousins  faced nine-termRepublican Nick Spano in a state Senate election. The election wasvery close, certi ed in favor of Spano by 18 votes.The result depended on 457 registered voter ballots that could not befound on the printed voter list when they arrived at the polls. StaffOn June 22 there will be primary elections in New York.instructed them to vote by a davit ballot. O cials later determinedthat they accidentally voted at a different Westchester polling placethan the one assigned.New York's highest court ordered that these ballots be discountedentirely, refusing to give poll workers a duty to help lost voters at thewrong polling places (also known as the "wrong church").In 2009, lawmakers required poll workers to redirect lost voters tohave their votes counted. But a new report published by VoteEarlyNYfound that this “wrong church” technicality disquali ed more than13,800 ballots cast in the right county in Election 2020, the largestsource of disquali ed a davit ballots from registered voters.A disproportionate majority (69%) were cast in New York City, where2,357 Bronx voters (approximately one in 187 voters) cast a ballot atanother Bronx vote center. The 20 hardest-hit Assembly districts inthe City had nearly the same number of disquali ed ballots as the 57counties outside the City.The rule does away with even statewide races in which all voters canparticipate and legislative or local races for which hard-hit votersremain eligible.At the federal level, the Supreme Court is reviewing a Voting RightsAct challenge to a similar Arizona rule. In a decision striking down thelaw, the Ninth Circuit found a discriminatory impact on minoritycommunities in Arizona.Confusion after moving a short distance in an urban area, movingfrequently, and counterintuitive voting assignments lead to moreincorrect votes. Similar factors may be at work in many of New York'smajority and minority communities, where thousands of people wereinstructed to  ll out a davit ballots under the mistakenunderstanding that they would count. That is an injustice.California and New Jersey protect civil rights by preventing totaldisquali cation of these ballots. Instead, o cials count the votesfrom all contests a voter would have been eligible to vote. In Albany,the Senate passed similar legislation, but the Assembly did not voteon it.In Arizona, impact litigation may be the only option. But New York canreform a failed policy that has suppressed voters and confusedcaucuses since Nick Spano edged out Stewart-Cousins  in 2004.-Berg is a co-founder of VoteEarlyNY and Landy is a voting rightsactivist RELATED TOPICS

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A Way to Guarantee Voting Rights

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