Three years after New Yorkers said only people with a legitimate excuse should receive a mail-in ballot, a court ruled that a state law overriding the public’s position can remain in place.
The New York State Appellate Division, Third Department granted Democrats’ motion to dismiss an appeal from Republican-affiliated groups challenging New York’s “Early Mail Voter Act,” which was signed into law in 2023. The law allows anyone to obtain an early mail-in ballot. Every Republican in the state legislature opposed the legislation, alongside five Democrats.
The Republican National Committee, Republican Reps. Elise Stefanik and Claudia Tenney, Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections and other Republican groups alleged the law was enacted in “defiance of Article II, § 2, ignoring and subverting the will of the People whom the Legislature is supposed to represent.”
New Yorkers had previously issued a resounding “no” when asked to vote on the constitutional amendment in 2021. Prior to the state’s Democrats usurping the will of the people, the New York State Constitution said voters who wanted an absentee ballot had to provide an excuse. Republicans statewide successfully launched a massive campaign against the measure.
But a state Supreme Court judge ruled in February the law was constitutional, eliciting rebuke from New York Republican Party Chair Ed Cox.
“Since the Civil War, New York’s state Constitution has required a constitutional amendment in order to expand absentee voting. The Legislature acknowledged this fact when in 2021 it submitted an amendment for no-excuse
