By Paul A. Lauto, Esq.
Voting in person on Election Day, with the exception of those suffering from serious illness or physical disability et al., has been a time honored tradition well rooted in the law. This tradition was temporarily altered by allowing widespread mail in voting during the Covid outbreak, opening the door to increased ballot harvesting, fraud and inaccurate results. Now that the Covid outbreak is behind us and there is no excuse not to return to in person voting, many states including New York have enacted new laws to make the temporary Covid relaxed rules permanent.
The highest court in New York, the Court of Appeals, has now issued a ruling upholding New York's voting expansion laws allowing voting by mail for any reason. This ruling is notwithstanding an ostensible contradiction to Article II, Section 2 of the New York State Constitution which provides that in person voting is not required only if, "...qualified voters who, on the occurrence of any election, may be unable to appear personally at the polling place because of illness or physical disability... ."
The ruling was praised by Democrats including Governor Hochul who said, "Generations of Americans fought to protect and secure the right to vote, and we have a responsibility to continue removing the barriers that persist today that prevent far too many people from exercising that right." To the contrary, the ruling was condemned by Republicans including Congresswoman Stefanik who said, "New York's court system is so corrupt and disgraceful that today's ruling has essentially declared that for over 150 years, New York's elected officials, voters, and judges misunderstood their own state's Constitution, and that in-person voting was never required outside the current legal absentee process."
This ruling all but insures that New York State's governing body will be forever Blue. If political bias continues to infect all three branches of government and enough states follow in the footsteps of this ruling, it may well all but insure that the governing bodies of the United States will also be forever Blue. At that point, the United States will effectively become the very type of autocracy we fought to escape in 1776.
Long Island Lawyer
Paul A. Lauto, Esq.
www.liattorney.com o
Voting in person on Election Day, with the exception of those suffering from serious illness or physical disability et al., has been a time honored tradition well rooted in the law. This tradition was temporarily altered by allowing widespread mail in voting during the Covid outbreak, opening the door to increased ballot harvesting, fraud and inaccurate results. Now that the Covid outbreak is behind us and there is no excuse not to return to in person voting, many states including New York have enacted new laws to make the temporary Covid relaxed rules permanent.
The highest court in New York, the Court of Appeals, has now issued a ruling upholding New York's voting expansion laws allowing voting by mail for any reason. This ruling is notwithstanding an ostensible contradiction to Article II, Section 2 of the New York State Constitution which provides that in person voting is not required only if, "...qualified voters who, on the occurrence of any election, may be unable to appear personally at the polling place because of illness or physical disability... ."
The ruling was praised by Democrats including Governor Hochul who said, "Generations of Americans fought to protect and secure the right to vote, and we have a responsibility to continue removing the barriers that persist today that prevent far too many people from exercising that right." To the contrary, the ruling was condemned by Republicans including Congresswoman Stefanik who said, "New York's court system is so corrupt and disgraceful that today's ruling has essentially declared that for over 150 years, New York's elected officials, voters, and judges misunderstood their own state's Constitution, and that in-person voting was never required outside the current legal absentee process."
This ruling all but insures that New York State's governing body will be forever Blue. If political bias continues to infect all three branches of government and enough states follow in the footsteps of this ruling, it may well all but insure that the governing bodies of the United States will also be forever Blue. At that point, the United States will effectively become the very type of autocracy we fought to escape in 1776.
Long Island Lawyer
Paul A. Lauto, Esq.
www.liattorney.com o
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