The Senate of the state of new York approved a package of laws facilitating the participation of citizens in elections. Voters given the opportunity of early voting, introduced automatic updating of voter registration in their movements, allowed to pre-register to vote to 16-17 year olds.
The outpouring of support for @RJackson_NYC at today’s swearing-in was amazing. With Senator Jackson in the @NYSenDems Majority, I know we will accomplish great things over the coming Legislative Session! pic.twitter.com/k6VmYCa3kX
— Sen. Stewart-Cousins (@AndreaSCousins) January 14, 2019
The package of bills put forward by Democrats, was considered and adopted by the Senate on January 14. «The government should seek to break down barriers, so the democratic majority in the Senate makes work easier for those who have the right to vote. We need more votes in our democracy, not less,» — says the leader of the democratic majority in the Senate, Andrea Stewart-cousins.
Andrea Stewart-Cousins state Senate signals some sanity — https://t.co/Azlba2X9jm pic.twitter.com/09wXq2iokh
— Jab News (@JabNews1) January 11, 2019
According to the official website of the Senate, Deputy majority leader Michael Gianaris and sponsor of the bill noted after the vote that: «In a time when voting rights are threatened, we must fight for our democracy, because nothing is more important than the right to vote. Our new Senate majority will simplify voter registration and make access to the ballot box more than fair.»
According to the law, the early voting period begins not less than 10 days until 2 days before election day and includes two full weekend days. Districts are required to create at least one website in order to vote for every 50 thousand voters. Voter registration if they move will now be carried out automatically. As the legislation prescribes the possibility of absentee voting — a citizen can request a postal vote, without explaining the reasons.
We were sent here to be ambitious, to make New York a beacon of hope and progress for the rest of our country. We are going to tell the rest of the country that New York is about opportunities! Not barriers, not walls, not divisions. pic.twitter.com/8HAQ5WjzIK
— Sen. Stewart-Cousins (@AndreaSCousins) January 9, 2019
One of the authors of the bill Senator Brian Kavanagh recalled that the state acted in one of the worst election laws in the country, which was made unnecessarily complicated the vote. «For many years, the Democrats fought to change this, and as a member of the Assembly, I proudly took almost all bills — only that they were blocked by Senate Republicans. Well, today is a new day! The rapid reform of our broken voting system that we carry out under the guidance of Andrea Stewart-cousins and President elections Zellner Miri, clearly given to understand that we want every eligible voter participate in our democracy without undue difficulties.»
Among other things enshrined in law to hold simultaneous Federal and regional primaries, which should help to save budget millions of dollars. However, the senators believe one of the most important — the adopted law on the restriction of the electoral funding company LLC (LLC). Now they are subject to almost the same requirements as corporations. Until that time, many believed the sponsorship money from LLC is a special loophole for shadow funding of candidates.
«The closure of the LLC Loophole, the most glaring defect in our system of financing campaigns — will disable the huge flow of unlimited, often almost anonymous campaign contributions that have allowed certain individuals and narrow business interests to buy influence wholesale. This is a huge first step in what I hope will be a more serious revision of our system of financing campaigns «, — summed up the vote, the Senator Cavanaugh.
