Associated Press: Partisan control determines how states act on voting rights

ATLANTA (AP) — New York voters for years have experienced some of the longest wait times in the nation on Election Day. Attempts to fix the problem routinely became casualties of the divided politics of the state Legislature.

That dynamic changed last November, when Democrats won majorities in both legislative chambers, and it didn’t take them long to act.

Just weeks into this year’s legislative session, they passed a bill to allow early voting, and Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo promptly signed it.

“Early voting is going to make a significant difference for countless numbers of New Yorkers by making polling places so much more accessible and allow voters to determine when it is most convenient for them,” said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York.

New York is among a small number of states where Democrats made big gains in last year’s election and have used that power to pass laws to make it easier to register and to vote. They have introduced early voting, all-mail voting or automatic registration.

A few Republican-led states — some of which saw high turnout for Democratic candidates — are going in the opposite direction, advancing bills to tighten voter registration and early voting.