New York: Voter-Registration Lawsuit Settled in Unusual Accord | Wall Street Journal

The Sullivan County Board of Elections will appoint a monitor to review challenges to voter registrations to settle a lawsuit filed by Hasidic Jewish residents in what legal experts call an unprecedented agreement in New York state. A group of 10 Hasidic registered voters from the Catskills village of Bloomingburg sued the Sullivan County Board of Elections in 2015, claiming the board violated the First Amendment, the 14th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act. The plaintiffs alleged the Board of Elections engaged in a “discriminatory campaign to deprive Hasidic Jewish residents of Bloomingburg…of the fundamental right to vote.” U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest approved the settlement Monday.

New York: Early voting: Cuomo wants it; Counties have concerns | Poughkeepsie Journal

Registered voters in New York wouldn’t have to wait until Election Day to cast their ballot in person if Gov. Andrew Cuomo has his way. A measure in Cuomo’s $145 billion budget proposal would make New York the 38th state in the country to allow early voting, in which a limited number of polling places are opened ahead of elections, freeing up voters from having to cast their ballot on a specific day. Supporters of early voting say states should be doing anything they can to make voting more convenient, particularly in New York, where just 29 percent of voters cast their ballot in 2014, a gubernatorial election year.

New York: Officials split on Cuomo’s early-voting proposal | Times Herald-Record

New Yorkers would get 12 extra days to vote under a proposal Gov. Andrew Cuomo stuck in his State of the State address and it is already dividing local state legislators. As part of Cuomo’s State of the State address last Wednesday, he said he wants to allow New Yorkers to vote early at 139 locations throughout the state. The legislation would require every county to offer residents access to at least one early voting polling place and allow residents to vote 12 days before Election Day. The measure would allow voters to cast ballots for at least eight hours on weekdays and five hours on weekends. Counties would be required to have one early voting polling site for every 50,000 residents and each county’s boards of elections would determine where to site the polling places.

New York: Concerns of ‘Voter Fatigue’ as New York Schedules Four 2016 Election Days | Gotham Gazette

As New Yorkers begin a year of many voting opportunities, there are important questions that elections will help answer – like who the next U.S. President will be and which party will control the state Senate – but also concern about voter fatigue and thus, turnout. There will be at least four chances for New Yorkers to cast votes in 2016, with three different primary election days leading up to November’s general election. There will be a presidential primary vote in April; congressional primaries in June; and state legislative primaries in September. There will also be special elections sprinkled in to fill empty seats in the state Assembly and Senate.

New York: Cuomo pitches early voting before elections, automatic registration of drivers | syracuse.com

Republicans and Democrats often disagree when it comes to efforts to expand voter participation and protect against voter fraud. So it’s no shocker that Onondaga County’s two elections commissioners are taking opposite sides on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to allow people to vote up to 12 days before Election Days and to automatically register people as voters when they obtain or renew a driver’s license. In his proposed state budget on Wednesday, Cuomo pointed out that New York’s voter turnout rate was the 44th lowest of 50 states in the 2012 presidential election. He noted that 37 other states allow voters to cast ballots in person early, before Election Day, to encourage people to vote when its convenient for them to get to the polls.

New York: Reform groups say Cuomo should include funds for early voting in 2016 budget | Auburn Citizen

A collection of good government groups is calling on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to insert funding in his 2016-17 executive budget for two election reform proposals. The New York Voters Coalition said the state should provide $5 million to help counties implement early voting and an additional $2 million for the development of electronic poll books and ballot on demand systems. According to the group, which includes representatives from Common Cause/NY, League of Women Voters New York State and the New York Public Interest Research Group, the measures could boost voter turnout in New York. “We note that 2016 is a particularly appropriate year to fund much-needed election administration reforms, with important election contests at the presidential, gubernatorial, congressional level and legislative levels,” they wrote.

New York: Legislation introduced to tighten New York City campaign finance rules | NY Daily News

A package of bills to tighten the city’s campaign finance rules is set to be introduced in the City Council this week. The legislation would bar more people from giving big bucks to candidates because they do business with the city, and slap more restrictions on fundraising by such donors. “We’re taking on the onslaught of dark money and special interests in the city’s elections,” said Councilman Ben Kallos, chair of the government operations committee and one of the sponsors. Right now, owners of firms with city business are bound by strict contribution limits – but their parent companies and those companies’ execs aren’t covered. That means real estate titans who hide their business in multiple LLCs can get out of the rules.

New York: Evenwel Could Have Tremendous Impact on New York Senate & Assembly Districts | New York Election News

Today’s New York Times editorializes on how two Texas voters in the Evenwel case are challenging the use of overall population for redistricting. “They want to force the state to count only the number of voters in apportioning districts. This approach, besides being at odds with long-accepted practice, is both inflexible and impractical. The census, which provides the data that most states use, counts people, not voters,” The Times editorial continues, “the plaintiffs know that getting rid of a system that counts all people would hurt Democratic-leaning urban areas with large, noncitizen Latino populations, and would favor rural and conservative areas where more Republicans live. In other words, the suit is an effort to transfer political power from Democratic to Republican regions. The Supreme Court has never required that states follow this or any other specific method of apportionment, and there is no reason to start now.”

New York: Albany County must pay $1.7M for redistricting lawsuit | Times Union

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Albany County to pay $1.7 million in legal costs to the plaintiffs who successfully sued to strike down the county’s 2011 redistricting map that diluted minority voting power. Combined with the county’s own outside legal expenses, the federal voting rights case could cost taxpayers at least $2.2 million — a figure that does not include all the county’s legal work or the expense of redrawing the flawed maps. County Executive Dan McCoy moved swiftly to lay the fault at the feet of the County Legislature, led by fellow Democrats, which in January overwhelmingly rejected a settlement his office negotiated midtrial that would have capped the legal fees at $750,000. But legislative leaders just as quickly pointed the finger back at him for threatening to veto an earlier settlement for up to $850,000.

New York: Millions in Campaign Donations in Albany Go to Legal Fees | The New York Times

During the final weeks of the 2013 legislative session, Robert J. Rodriguez, a state assemblyman from Harlem, went out drinking with friends one night and was later arrested and charged with drunken driving. Mr. Rodriguez eventually pleaded guilty, losing his driver’s license for at least six months. But the monetary cost to Mr. Rodriguez was far less: His campaign not only picked up the roughly $8,500 in legal bills — it also paid his $900 penalty, records show. Mr. Rodriguez’s case, while extreme, is one of many examples where New York lawmakers have used campaign funds to pay for lawyers, often lawyers who specialize in criminal defense. The New York Times examined the spending of 41 elected officials who have been connected to a scandal or investigation since 2005; those 41 politicians have spent at least $7 million of campaign funds on legal fees, based on a review of Board of Elections filings from 2005 to the present.

New York: Citizens United loses New York ruling over donors | Reuters

A federal judge on Monday rejected Citizens United’s effort to block New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman from demanding that the conservative group disclose more information about its major donors. U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein in Manhattan refused to impose a preliminary injunction that would stop Schneiderman from requiring charities to disclose names, addresses and total contributions of big donors in order to solicit funds in the state. Citizens United argued that Schneiderman’s interpretation of a 2006 state regulation on donor disclosures violated its First Amendment free speech and association rights, and invaded the privacy of donors who wished to remain anonymous.

New York: Sanders could face New York primary ballot struggle | Capital New York

Senator Bernie Sanders, who is challenging Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, will face a significant legal barrier if he attempts to run in next year’s New York primary while remaining unaffiliated with a party. A section of state election law commonly known as Wilson-Pakula prohibits candidates from appearing on the ballot in a party’s primary unless they are either enrolled members or receive the approval of the party’s committee.

New York: Lawyers want $6.9M from Albany County for redistricting case | Times Union

The lawyers who successfully sued the county to scrap its 2011 redistricting map are asking a federal judge to award them nearly $7 million in legal fees and related costs — a claim County Attorney Thomas Marcelle blasted as “so unreasonable as to almost border on unethical.” But the attorneys countered in their court filing that the bill is entirely county leaders’ fault — first for shortchanging minority voters and then for twice failing to approve settlements that would have capped the bill “because of political bickering among themselves.” The county “cannot escape the inarguable reality that each and every dollar of any fee award to plaintiffs’ counsel is a product of defendants’ recalcitrance,” they wrote.

New York: Federal judge OKs Albany County’s new political map | Times Union

A federal judge on Tuesday blessed Albany County’s new political map, effectively ending a nearly four-year voting rights lawsuit triggered by a plan that shortchanged minority voters. Senior U.S. Judge Lawrence Kahn approved the map over the objections of the leadership of the Bethlehem Democratic Committee, which hoped to file a motion Wednesday arguing that the county used the court-ordered do-over to gerrymander at least one Democratic challenger out of an incumbent’s district. The new map was ordered by Kahn’s March 24 ruling that the county’s 2011 redistricting plan violated the federal Voting Rights Act by diluting African-American voting power — the third time in three decades the county has been forced to redraw its lines in the face of a Voting Rights Act challenge.

New York: Albany GOP backs redistricting map that spares suburbs | Times Union

The two Republican members of Albany County’s redistricting commission have submitted a proposal that they say would draw five majority-minority districts — as ordered by a federal judge — without changing any suburban districts. The plan — which was drafted by activist Aaron Mair, an expert witness against the county in the voting rights lawsuit the county lost last month — has voting age minority populations that range from 50.3% to 52.7% in districts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6. Keep in mind, Senior U.S. Judge Lawrence Kahn directed the county to create an additional, fifth majority-minority district based solely on residents who identified as black. Once Hispanic residents are included — something the plaintiffs argued in favor of in the lawsuit — the majorities are even larger.

New York: Non-citizens in New York City could soon be given the right to vote | The Guardian

New York City is routinely described as a “global hub”, a place so thoroughly penetrated by international capital and migration that it seems at once within and without the United States. It is the centre of American commerce and media, but its politics, demographics and worldly outlook make the Big Apple an outlier. New York may be about to become even more distinct. The left-leaning New York City council is currently drafting legislation that would allow all legal residents, regardless of citizenship, the right to vote in city elections. If the measure passes into law, it would mark a major victory for a voting rights campaign that seeks to enfranchise non-citizen voters in local elections across the country. A few towns already permit non-citizen residents to vote locally, but New York City would be by far the largest jurisdiction to do so.

New York: 2 top local officials call for state attorney general to investigate Bloomingburg voting | Times Herald-Record

Top officials of the Town of Mamakating and Village of Bloomingburg have called on state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to investigate what the officials call systemic examples of voter fraud in Bloomingburg over the past two years. In calling for an independent investigation in a joint statement, Mamakating Supervisor Bill Herrmann and Bloomingburg Mayor Frank Gerardi harshly criticized Sullivan County District Attorney James Farrell for neglecting to conduct his own investigation.

New York: Federal judge cites Albany County redistricting failure; legal fees could top $1M | Times Union

Albany County diluted minority voting power in its 2011 redistricting plan, a federal judge ruled Tuesday in a decision that temporarily freezes this year’s legislative elections until a new plan is drafted. Senior U.S. Judge Lawrence Kahn’s 81-page decision orders the county to submit an amended map of its 39 legislative districts within three weeks -— a timetable aimed at minimizing disruption to an election calendar that begins in June. The defeat marks the third straight time the county will be forced to alter its political lines amid a challenge under the federal 1965 Voting Rights Act — a landmark piece of legislation aimed at protecting the franchise of minority voters. “With rare exceptions, there is not yet an equal, fair opportunity for minority-preferred candidates to be elected on a county level absent special circumstances,” Kahn wrote, calling the county’s entire redistricting process “questionable.”

New York: Hasidic Community in Bloomingburg Files Lawsuit Over Voting Rights | JP Updates

Sullivan County in New York is back in the news again, as the local residents and the residing Hasidic community continue their head to head battle. The Upstate County is trying to prevent Hasidic voters from voting in an upcoming election solely based off of their religious beliefs, according to a new federal lawsuit. The Sullivan County Board of Elections (BOE) sent notices to 184 of 285 registered voters January 16 stating that it “intended to cancel their voter registration and to deprive them of the right to vote.” More than 160 of those 184 voters are Hasidim. Since the village of Bloomingburg has seen a large migration of Hasidic Jews, there has been a heavy animosity filling the air. Local officials have thrown up roadblocks trying to stifle the Jewish voices.

New York: Feds: Ex-Spring Valley mayor sought to ‘bury’ abstentee ballots | The Journal News

Former Spring Valley Mayor Noramie Jasmin did more than sell her political influence for kickbacks — she also tried to rig a village election, federal prosecutors said in court papers filed in her corruption case this week. Prosecutors allege in a 20-page motion filed in U.S. District Court in White Plains that Jasmin met with developer Moses “Mark” Stern, who was cooperating with the FBI, and asked him if he could help eliminate dozens of absentee ballots in that year’s village elections to ensure “favorable” candidates would win.

New York: Cuomo Sets Election Date to Fill Grimm’s House Seat | Wall Street Journal

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday called a special election in the race to succeed former U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm on Staten Island. The special election will be held May 5, Mr. Cuomo said. U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein had ordered Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, to set a date for the election by the end of the week. Mr. Grimm, a Republican who was re-elected in November over Democrat Domenic Recchia, resigned Jan. 5 after pleading guilty to tax fraud related to a restaurant he once owned. The only Republican candidate is Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan. There are a handful of possible Democratic contenders, including Brooklyn City Councilman Vincent Gentile, Brooklyn Assemblyman William Colton and Robert Holst, a Staten Island electrician and a founder of the Middle Class Action Project, an advocacy group. The congressional seat represents all of Staten Island and a sliver of southern Brooklyn.

New York: Judge orders Cuomo to set special election | The Hill

A federal judge has ruled that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has until Friday to set the date for a special election to replace former Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.), or the court will do it for him. Judge Jack B. Weinstein of the Federal District Court in Brooklyn ruled on Tuesday in favor of a group that sued Cuomo in an attempt to force him to call for the vote in New York’s 11th District. “The right to representation in government is the central pillar of democracy in this country,” Weinstein wrote. “Unjustified delay in filling a vacancy cannot be countenanced. Unless the Governor announces the date for a special election on or before noon on Friday, February 20, 2015, or justifies a further delay at a hearing to be conducted by this court at that time and date, this court will fix the date for a special election as promptly as the law will allow.”

New York: Cuomo attorneys argue against special-election suit | Capital New York

Attorneys for Gov. Andrew Cuomo argued in court filings last week that a lawsuit seeking to compel the governor to call a special election to replace former congressman Michael Grimm represented an “extraordinary and drastic remedy” for a nonexistent problem. The suit, brought by Ronald Castorina Jr., who serves as the Republican commissioner for Staten Island on the city’s Board of Elections, claims that Cuomo has a “mandatory and not discretionary” duty to call a special election once a seat becomes vacant, and that not doing so is a “continuous and ongoing” failure that the court must address. Grimm resigned from Congress in early January after pleading guilty to federal tax fraud. Cuomo’s lawyers argue that federal and state law places the ability to call a special election at the discretion of the governor, and that a month is not a long enough time to constitute a breach of that duty.

New York: ‘The governor is a governor, not a king,’ argues attorney in hearing to force Cuomo to set special election | SILive.com

The plaintiffs suing to force a special congressional election told a federal judge that Gov. Andrew Cuomo is taking away the voice of Staten Island and part of Brooklyn on serious national issues. “We’re talking about the disenfranchisement of nearly 750,000 people who will never have a voice in the XL pipeline,” said Staten Island lawyer Ronald Castorina Jr. in a hearing in Brooklyn federal court Friday morning, referring to the national debate over the building of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. “The governor is a governor, not a king,” Castorina added. Castorina, also a city Board of Elections Republican commissioner, represents six Staten Islanders and two Brooklyn residents who argue that Cuomo is violating their constitutional rights by not setting a special election for former Rep. Michael Grimm’s vacant seat in the 11th Congressional District. Grimm resigned effective Jan. 5. U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein will decide the case.

New York: Legislation Would Allow New Yorkers to Track Absentee Ballots Online | Observer

Without the satisfying pull of a lever or the little sticker that says “I voted,” mailing in an absentee ballot can leave a voter a little uncertain this his choice will actually count—and Councilman Ben Kallos is looking to change that. Mr. Kallos is introducing legislation today that would require the Board of Elections to provide a secure website through which New Yorkers could track their absentee ballot—from the moment the city receives the request for a ballot until the moment the vote is counted. “The tracking system we’re asking for is something the Board of Elections should have in place for their own internal tracking purposes, and we’re asking them to have it in place not only for themselves but for the general public,” Mr. Kallos told the Observer.

New York: Lawsuit looks to force Gov. Andrew Cuomo to set special election for Congress | SILive.com

Eight people have filed a lawsuit against Gov. Andrew Cuomo, arguing his failure to set a special election date to fill the congressional vacancy violates the constitutional rights of residents of Staten Island and of southern Brooklyn. Cuomo is constitutionally required to call a special election to fill the vacated seat. The election must take place within 70 to 80 days of when he announces it. However, the governor has discretion as to when to call for a special election, which could prevent it from taking place until the next general election in November. Former Rep. Michael Grimm resigned last month after pleading guilty to felony tax fraud in connection to a Manhattan health food restaurant he used to co-own before being elected. As recently as this week, Cuomo said he had no timeline for when a special election would be set. The suit requests that the court compel the governor to set a special election.

New York: Disabled hope to retire lever voting machines for good | Legislative Gazete

Legislators joined disability and voting advocates at a press conference on Tuesday, Jan. 13 in Albany to call for an end to the use of lever voting machines in local elections. Although lever voting machines have been replaced in most elections in New York since the implementation of the Help America Vote Act in 2002, many are still in use in village, school district, and other local elections due to repeated extensions by the state Legislature. Some local municipalities and schools prefer to use lever machines because some do not own newer voting machines and must borrow or rent them from the Board of Elections or pay a private company to conduct their elections using more modern voting machines. But advocates say voters with visual, mobility and cognitive disabilities are unable to use the lever machines privately, needing the assistance of a caretaker or poll worker to help them vote.

New York: Man Seeks to Turn Tables on Officials in Voter Fraud | New York Times

John Kennedy O’Hara spent most of 2003 picking up garbage in city parks and cleaning public toilets as part of his sentence for illegal voting in Brooklyn. Also, he had to pay a fine and restitution amounting to $15,192. His supposed crime was that he registered to vote using the address of a girlfriend on 47th Street in Sunset Park, where he claimed to live part of the time. But he also maintained a residence 14 blocks away. While this sounds like pretty serious punishment for virtually nothing — the state election laws are so remarkably elastic on matters of residency that a former head of the Brooklyn Democratic Party was actually living in Queens during his reign — we cannot be sure if Mr. O’Hara got more than his unfair share. There are, after all, very few people to compare him with. Practically no one. It appears that the last person to be convicted of illegal voting in New York State before Mr. O’Hara was the abolitionist and suffragist Susan B. Anthony, who cast a ballot in Rochester in 1872, flagrantly disregarding that she was a woman and therefore not allowed to do so. She was not sentenced to pick up garbage in the parks, but was fined $100. She never paid.

New York: McCoy denies he meddled with redistricting | Times Union

County Executive Dan McCoy told a federal judge Wednesday that he kept his hands off the county’s controversial 2011 redistricting process after he created the commission charged with carrying it out. “When I put the commission together, I gave them no guidance after that,” said McCoy, who was at the time chairman of the Albany County Legislature and the county Democratic Party. His testimony, which last 35 minutes, came on day nine of the trial in a lawsuit challenging the political map. McCoy asserted he did not recall many of the details of the contentious political maneuvering that embroiled the legislature’s sharply divided Democratic majority during passage of the electoral map nearly four years ago. Democrats including McCoy split 16-14 in favor of the law creating the map, which ultimately passed 22-14 with Republican support.