Voting & Elections

Ranked Choice Voting is coming to NYC elections in 2021!

Erroneous voting instructions and other disinformation began popping up on a handful of Twitter accounts on Monday, including one post encouraging Kentucky supporters of Mr. Bevin to vote on Wednesday. That and other posts were removed and some accounts were closed after being reported, according to David Vance, a spokesman for Common Cause, a member of the Election Protection alliance. None appeared to have spread widely.

When combined, though, these problems reflect a slurry of confusion, incompetence, and neglect that has the same effect as wrongdoing and, more importantly, is plausibly deniable, especially when the responsibility for running elections is split between the state and the counties. “They each point the finger at one another,” said Sara Henderson, the Executive Director of Common Cause Georgia, a non-profit, non-partisan advocacy organization that also sued the state during the midterms. “But, neither one will be held culpable or accountable for running the elections process.”

“The limited release of Dr. Hofeller’s files has already proven critical in exposing secret efforts to manipulate the census and redistricting,” said Kathay Feng, national redistricting director for Common Cause. “Now the truth can come out about all of Hofeller’s shocking efforts to rig elections in almost every state.”

“Litigation is a hard and painful road,” said Kathay Feng, national redistricting director for Common Cause. The group was a plaintiff in the U.S. Supreme Court case decided in June , which also focused on North Carolina’s congressional map. The goal, Feng said, is to “make changes where each 10 years we’re not facing that same uphill ... climb.”

Technological advances aside, early voter turnout will depend on whether people know that the option now exists in New York. Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, which has been leading efforts to raise awareness, said that educating a public long accustomed to “16 hours, on the first Tuesday in November” had been a challenge. “Some people are very aware of it,” she said. For others, Ms. Lerner added, “this is absolutely news to them.”