Press Release
Charter Review Commission Must Delay Ballot Proposals Due to Rushed Process
Given historically quick timeline, expansive scope of Commission's work, and lack of public input, Commission's proposals must wait until next year's ballot
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“Now that the budget is finalized, New York lawmakers can and must address the myriad policy issues and COVID-19 related legislation, including expanding absentee voting which is crucial to ensuring the success of our elections in June and November,” said Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York.
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“We need to have diverse voices heard in these policy decisions,” said Common Cause New York’s Susan Lerner. “Our representative system is geographically based, with the idea that different communities have different needs and therefore are individually represented with elected officials who can best articulate what their community needs.”
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Now, with the budget process over, some advocacy groups argue that setting up a system to allow lawmakers to actually vote remotely or electronically is crucial to ensuring that they continue to legislate throughout the pandemic. “I don’t think it’s an ‘either or,’ I think the system has to be set up,” Susan Lerner, executive director of the good government group Common Cause New York, told City & State when asked whether the Legislature should move to actual remote voting for the rest of session. “We are paying them to be...
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“Lawmakers can and must address the myriad policy issues and COVID-19 related legislation, including expanding absentee voting which is crucial to ensuring the success of our elections in June and November,” said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause/NY, a government watchdog group.
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“It’s a totally opaque, not transparent, not sufficiently open and collaborative process to begin with, and it’s even more so now,” said Susan Lerner, the executive director of the good government group Common Cause New York. “In virtually every way possible, the individual representatives are cut out of this process, which is three leaders in a room, and now it’s even more locked down than usual.” Lerner said that lawmakers should continue voting on critical issues like election safety and security and rent after the budget is...
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Common Cause NY points out that other states like Pennsylvania, are holding public meetings, hearings, and voting remotely as of last week. “The Legislature is a co-equal branch of government that cannot cede its role to the Executive [Branch], which is correctly triaging the current state of emergency,” said Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause NY. “While the governor is figuring out how to get 40,000 ventilators, and literally keep New York alive, lawmakers need to look beyond the rapidly evolving crisis, and help plan...
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Susan Lerner of the good government group Common Cause NY says the legislature is a co-equal branch of government and cannot cede its responsibility to the governor by leaving town (figuratively speaking) after the budget. Furthermore, she says any claim that lawmakers can’t do their job because of technology is rubbish.
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Common Cause New York, a voting rights group, had called on Gov. Cuomo and state officials to consolidate the primary, contending that officials have made it clear that they won’t have the bandwidth to conduct an entirely absentee election by late April. “We don't have the infrastructure in place to do it quite frankly, so that's anything from having enough paper to print all the ballots, to making sure that we have prepaid postage, to make sure folks can return their ballot. It's a lot of smaller logistical decisions and preparations that...
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Common Cause/NY Executive Director Susan Lerner applauded the move. "Consolidating the presidential primary to June 23rd is the right move to protect voters' health and free up much needed funding for more immediate public health needs. We applaud Governor Cuomo for taking this step. Next, New York lawmakers must expand absentee voting to ensure all voters can exercise their right to vote -- no matter the situation," Lerner said in a release. Common Cause suggests Boards of Elections immediately inform voters of the move in primary date to...
Press Release
NY Electeds, Election Commissioners + CC/NY Call to Expand Absentee Voting + Consolidate Primary Amid COVID-19
Today, State Senator Alessandra Biaggi, Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou, New York State Board of Elections Co-Chair Douglas A. Kellner, Onondaga County Democratic Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny, and Susan Lerner of Common Cause/NY joined together to urge New York lawmakers to expand absentee voting in New York, as well as consolidate the April 28th presidential and village primaries and special elections, to the legislative and congressional primaries on June 23rd...
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Executive Director of Common Cause N.Y., Susan Lerner says there are steps the state can take in order to make sure every voter who wants to vote is given the opportunity to, despite the coronavirus health emergency. Lerner says a move to have New Yorkers vote by mail could mean hundreds of thousands of them won’t get the chance to vote because of voter roll inadequacies. She says the state should move to make absentee ballots readily available to anyone who wants one.
Press Release
Democracy Doesn’t Pause: Common Cause/NY on How Elections Can Proceed During COVID-19
Common Cause/NY released a white paper today with recommendations on how New York elections can proceed during a pandemic, including...