ALBANY, NY – Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay (R,C-Pulaski) and Assemblyman Mike Norris (R,C-Lockport) issued the following statements on the package of election bills signed today by Gov. Hochul. Portrayed as an effort to improve “voting rights,” one piece of legislation directly contradicts the results of a 2021 public referendum, in which multiple Democrat-sponsored initiatives were defeated.
“It took only 22 months for Democrats to reverse the will of New Yorkers and essentially de-certify the election results of 2021,” Leader Barclay said. “There was no ambiguity from voters when they summarily rejected a proposal to expand absentee ballots. The public went to the polls and cast their votes. New York Democrats didn’t like the results, so they took matters into their own hands. The governor and Albany liberals didn’t uphold our system of Democracy today – they abandoned it.”
“The expansion of the state’s absentee voting provision goes directly against what voters expressed less than two years ago. We’re opening the door to widespread fraud and abuse by utilizing more mail-in ballots,” said Assemblyman Norris, the Ranking Minority member on the Assembly Election Law Committee. “One thing is certain, New York voters already made their voices clear on this issue in 2021, flatly rejecting a proposed constitutional amendment on the measure. Now, Democrats have circumvented the will of the people to masquerade no-excuse absentee balloting as a better system for our election – it’s not.”
In November of 2021, New Yorkers voted against Ballot Propositions #4, which would have eliminated the provision that an absentee ballot is allowed when the voter is absent from the county, suffering from illness or limited by physical disability. The proposal was defeated by a margin of 55-45. The bills signed today by the governor include A.7632-A, the “Early Mail Voting Act,” which effectively permits universal, no-excuse absentee voting.
missing or outdated ad config