Governor Goes Around Voters’ Backs, Signs Change in State Election Laws

New York’s Democratic legislature and governor have decided to change election laws, despite the fact that voters had previously rejected the idea.

On Wednesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s website announced that she had signed a series of election reforms designed to “strengthen democracy and protect voting rights.”

Among these new voting laws is S. 7394-A/A. 7632-A, which strengthens the controversial early voting by mail that caused so much uproar in the 2020 presidential election.

“This legislation will create a process allowing all eligible, registered New York State voters the opportunity to vote early by mail in advance of an election,” a statement on the governor’s website reads. “This legislation represents a significant expansion of ballot access in New York State, and will provide millions of New York voters with an easy, safe, and secure means of voting early by mail ballot.”

Yet for all their talk about protecting “democracy” and “voting rights,” the leftist Democrats who run New York State seem to have forgotten one big thing: The people of New York do not want this.

According to Just the News, in 2021, voters in New York rejected a measure that would have enshrined early voting by mail into the state’s constitution.

Nevertheless, Hochul and her fellow Democrats have decided to push ahead anyway, in defiance of the will of the very people they claim to serve. A strange form of “democracy,” if you ask me.

Hochul’s new laws are not without pushback, however, and several Republican lawmakers at both the state and federal levels have filed a lawsuit against the governor for violating the state’s constitution.

Among those suing the governor are Rep. Elise Stefanik, the Republican National Committee and the New York Republican State Committee. All allege that this new law is unconstitutional.

“The Mail-Voting Law is a blatant violation of Article II, § 2 of the New York State Constitution, which requires qualified voters to cast their vote in any election in person at their designated polling places unless they will be unable to do so,” the lawsuit says. The only exceptions to voting in person allowed by law are absence from the county of residence or being unable to go to their polling place because of illness or physical disability.

The lawsuit is also careful to mention that the people of New York voted against this very thing two years ago.

“The Mail-Voting Law was enacted by the Legislature in open and knowing defiance of Article II, § 2, ignoring and subverting the will of the People whom the Legislature is supposed to represent. Only two years earlier at the general election held in November 2021, the voters of the State soundly rejected a constitutional amendment proposed by the Legislature entitled “Authorizing No-Excuse Absentee Ballot Voting,” which had sought to amend Article II, § 2 by deleting the requirements for absentee voting in order to allow all qualified voters to vote by mail without providing a specific reason.”

Robert Ortt, New York State Senate Minority Leader, called the vote-by-mail scheme “yet another attempt by the far-left to keep themselves in power in New York State.”

The unconstitutional vote-by-mail scheme is yet another attempt by the far-left to keep themselves in power in New York State.

It was rejected by New Yorkers at the ballot box and will be rejected again by the courts.https://t.co/0XCz3swwZU

— Rob Ortt (@SenatorOrtt) September 22, 2023

Honestly, this situation is really infuriating. The governor and legislature are  not only violating the laws of their own state, they are also going against the will of the people and are trying to push this agenda through anyway.

Yet this is hardly surprising. The left always loves to talk about “defending democracy,” but more often than not, that just means defending the liberal agenda and advancing their ideology.

The people of New York are learning the hard way that in the world of the left, just because you vote a certain way, it does not mean that the leftist authorities are going to respect your decision.

The Republicans have every right to take Hochul and her state election officials to court, because what they are doing is illegal.

Let’s hope the people of New York will not forget this illegal act, and will vote differently in the next election.