Coalition Letter Urges New York State Leaders To Protect and Strengthen Democracy in 2023

The Honorable Kathy Hochul Thursday, January 5, 2023
Governor of New York State

New York State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224
The Honorable Andrea Stewart-Cousins

Majority Leader of the New York State Senate
Legislative Office Building, Room 907
Albany, NY 12247
The Honorable Carl E. Heastie

Speaker of the New York State Assembly
Legislative Office Building, Room 932
Albany, NY 12248
Dear Governor Hochul, Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, and Speaker Heastie:
In 2021, we urged you to bolster New York’s democracy against rising threats. We thank you for
the significant steps you took to stand up for voters. Now, after a season of hateful attacks on
elections and voting itself, we count on your leadership to further strengthen the laws, oversight,
and resources necessary to foster the safe, inclusive, and responsive democracy New Yorkers
deserve.
Last year, we witnessed a disturbing increase nationwide in election denialism, threats against
election workers, and voter intimidation. New York was no exception. Voters reported
individuals going door-to-door in search of voter fraud. An unsuccessful lawsuit attempted to
throw out ballots that had already been mailed to boards of elections by eligible voters.
Meanwhile, billionaire megadonors and special-interest super PACs, out of touch with voters’
needs, dominated campaign spending.
You have shown inspiring leadership in the face of these challenges. The new John R. Lewis
Voting Rights Act of New York (NY VRA) makes our state a national leader in fighting race-
based voter discrimination. The on-campus poll site requirement has begun to expand ballot
access for student voters. These most-recent gains build on progress over several years, including
rights restoration for individuals on parole, pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-olds, automatic
voter registration, early voting, and statewide public campaign financing. Together, these
advances position New York to be a beacon of free and fair elections. With adequate resources
and proper implementation, their impact will be transformative.
But the fight for our democracy is far from over. We must maintain this momentum in 2023.
Your support for the below priorities is essential to ensuring that New York is well-equipped for
the consequential 2024 elections and to cement the state’s position as a national leader in
protecting and strengthening democracy. We ask you, in the coming budget and legislative
session to:
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Enact the 11-bill board of elections reform package with adequate and reliable state
funding: We urge you to reintroduce and enact the board of elections reform package passed by
the Senate last session. The package responds to a Senate investigation, reinforced by findings
from nonpartisan experts, that revealed a statewide election administration system rife with
problems, from chronic understaffing and underfunding to inadequate training protocols. If
enacted, this package would introduce reforms to local boards of elections grounded in national
best practices, including improved training, enhanced transparency, and standardized selection
processes for agency leadership. These bills are a first step toward modernizing election
administration in New York State and we hope they will mark the beginning of broader
improvements to boards of elections. We also urge you to appropriate sufficient funding in the
state budget to support local boards of elections, which often struggle to deliver consistent voter
service due in part to variable county budgets.
Realize the goals of the NY VRA with the voting and elections database and corresponding
funding: We also urge you to enact legislation creating a voting and elections database, similar
to the one proposed in S. 8202 last session, which will be key to implementing the NY VRA
once it goes into effect in July 2023. By making more comprehensive voting and demographic
data available to the public, the database will enable voters, lawmakers, and election
administrators to make evidence-based decisions to ensure equitable voting access for New
Yorkers. The FY 2023-2024 budget must provide sufficient funding for the NY VRA’s existing
provisions, as well as the voting and elections database.
Fund the small donor public financing program’s historic first cycle: We urge you to secure
the future of New York’s new small donor public financing program by appropriating the $100
million for future matching funds and the $14.5 million for administration requested by the
Public Campaign Finance Board for FY 2023-2024. The program is the strongest and most
robust legislative response in the nation to counter the megadonor-driven independent
expenditures that Citizens United unleashed. We applaud you for providing funding for program
administration and future matching funds in last year’s budget. By providing the program the
resources it needs, you will help give more everyday New Yorkers a greater voice and stake in
the political process. With the state’s transparency and anti-coordination rules, the legal
infrastructure is in place to help public financing expand meaningful opportunities for New
Yorkers to participate in elections.
Support automatic voter registration implementation: This month, another major legislative
accomplishment – automatic voter registration (AVR) – will go into effect at the Department of
Motor Vehicles, followed by other state and local agencies over the next two years. We urge you
to take all necessary steps to ensure that the State Board of Elections has adequate resources to
successfully implement AVR, which includes building an online voter registration (OVR)
platform that will enable agencies to easily enroll voters. If properly implemented, AVR could
result in an increase of as many as 1.1 million registered voters across our state, helping to
reduce a key barrier to the ballot box.
Make voter registration and absentee voting more accessible: We applaud you for reducing
New York’s voter registration deadline to the state constitutional minimum of ten days before
Election Day. This change, if implemented carefully, will create a single “golden day” of same-
day registration on the first day of early voting, allowing more eligible New Yorkers to
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participate in our democracy. In addition, as we continue to navigate the ongoing Covid-19
pandemic, we encourage you to extend the explicit definition of temporary illness in relation to
absentee voting availability so that no New Yorker must choose between their health and their
vote. Successful implementation and administration of these measures will be important
foundations for future pro-voter amendments to our state’s constitution.
2023 can be a banner year for protecting the rights and voices of New York voters. We look
forward to working together to implement and enact voting, elections, and campaign finance
reforms that strengthen the people’s trust in their elected government.
Sincerely,
504 Democratic Club

Alliance for Quality Education
Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Bard College Center for Civic Engagement
Bay Shore Babylon Women’s Huddle
Bethlehem Morning Voice Huddle
Bethlehem NY Indivisible
Brennan Center for Justice
Bronx Independent Living Services
Brooklyn NAACP
Brooklyn Resisters
Brooklyn Voters Alliance
CCoHOPE Indivisible
Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College
Center for Popular Democracy
Central Queens Independent Democrats (CQuID)
Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC)
Citizen Action of New York
Citizens Response Network of Wayne County, NY
Citizens Union
Common Cause/NY
Communications Workers of America District 1
Community Voices Heard
Demos
Disabled In Action of Metropolitan New York, Inc. (DIA)
Dominicanos USA
Downstate New York ADAPT
Dutchess County Progressive Action Alliance
East End Action Network (EEAN)
El Puente de Williamsburg
Empire State Indivisible
Fair Elections for New York
Four Freedoms Democratic Club
Future Coalition
Generation Vote
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Holland (Willows) Indivisible Group
Indivisible Activate NYC
Indivisible Binghamton
Indivisible Harlem
Indivisible Nation BK
Indivisible Rochester
Indivisible Salt City
Indivisible Scarsdale
Indivisible Ulster
Indivisible Upper East Side
Indivisible Westchester
IndivisibleWeStand UWS
Inwood Indivisible
Larchmont/Mamaroneck Indivisible
League of Women Voters of New York State
League of Women Voters of Albany County
League of Women Voters of Cattaraugus and Allegany Counties MAL
League of Women Voters of Chautauqua
League of Women Voters of East Nassau
League of Women Voters of Port Washington-Manhasset
League of Women Voters of Rensselaer County
League of Women Voters of Rockland County
League of Women Voters of Schenectady County
League of Women Voters of St. Lawrence County, New York
League of Women Voters of Suffolk County
League of Women Voters of the City of New York
League of Women Voters of the North Country
League of Women Voters of the Rochester Metro Area
League of Women Voters of the Syracuse Metropolitan Area
League of Women Voters of Tompkins County, New York
League of Women Voters of Westchester
Long Island Progressive Coalition
Long Islanders for Gun Safety
Make the Road New York
March On
MomsRising Together
NAACP New York State Conference
National Action Network
National Urban League
Broome County Urban League
Buffalo Urban League
Long Island Urban League
New York Urban League
Rochester Urban League
Westchester Urban League
New York Civic Engagement Table
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New York Democratic Lawyers Council
New York Immigration Coalition
New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG)
New York Working Families Party
Planned Parenthood Empire State Acts
Professional Staff Congress-CUNY
Progressive East End Reformers (PEER)
Progressive Schenectady
Putnam Progressives
Reinvent Albany
Stand Up America
The Andrew Goodman Foundation
The Workers Circle
Third Act NYC
Together We Will Long Island
U-ACT (Ulster Activists), Election Reform Committee
United Auto Workers Region 9A
Vote Early New York
Westchester for Change
YMCA of Greater New York
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The Honorable Kathy Hochul Thursday, January 5, 2023

Governor of New York State

The Honorable Andrea Stewart-Cousins

The Honorable Carl E. Heastie

Dear Governor Hochul, Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, and Speaker Heastie:

504 Democratic Club

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