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‘Guardians of Democracy’ Bristle Under Questioning, Citing Pace of NY Election Reforms
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Brigid Bergin
Published Sep 22, 2021
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Screengrab from State Senate livestream
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Sep 22, 2021
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Elections officials across New York took their turn in the hot seat on Tuesday, answering questions from State Senate lawmakers in an 8-hour hearing about how to improve the experience for voters. It was the last leg in a series of hearings triggered, in part, after the New York City Board of Elections’ released erroneous preliminary results for the June primary.
While both lawmakers and elections officials agreed that the vast majority of New York voters are able to cast their ballots without incident, they also agreed there was room for improvement, particularly given the national conversation around securing voting rights.
“If I told you that most of the levers on an elevator were working or most of the columns on a bridge...or most of the controls on a train, you’d say 'thank you' and find another mode of transport,” said Elections Committee Chair, state Senator Zellnor Myrie. “So with our democracy, that is in fact the infrastructure for our society — most is not good enough.”
The hearing began with testimony from the bipartisan members of the New York State Board of Elections, and continued with commissioners and representatives from various localities, including New York City. One theme that emerged repeatedly was a frustration on the part of elections officials to adjust to new legislative reforms. Republican officials, in particular, described the “burdens” these changes put on administrators.
A NY state senate committee held a hearing on election reforms on Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021.
Screengrab from State Senate livestream
Since taking majority control of the State Senate in 2019, Democrats have prioritized measures to make it easier for people to register and cast their ballots, including early voting, automatic voter registration, electronic poll books, expanded access to absentee ballots, and dozens of other changes.
But State Board of Elections co-chair Peter Kosinki, a Republican, cited 80 changes to election law that created more work for local boards of election.
“I’m going to call it a burden on our boards,” he said, in specific reference to a newly-enacted absentee ballot cure process that requires local boards to contact a voter when they return an absentee ballot with certain correctable mistakes to allow the voter to fix it and prevent the ballot from being disqualified. “It's a benefit to the voters, no question, but it's a burden on our boards that people need to understand.”
His comments were echoed by local elections officials.
“What we ask for is resources, what we need is a moratorium on election law changes,” said Erik Haight, the Republican commissioner from Dutchess County, who also described the challenges associated with meeting new mandates set by the legislature.
The Democratic lawmakers who control the State Senate are eyeing additional legislative changes to overhaul the structure of the New York City Board of Elections specifically. It is the only one in the state operating with 10 commissioners, one Democrat and one Republican from each borough. They are selected by each borough’s party leaders.
State Board of Elections co-chair Douglas Kellner, a Democrat who also served for more than a decade as a city BOE commissioner, testified that he believed it was time to shrink the number of commissioners.
“I believe that many of the underlying problems in the performance of the city board are due to its structure of 10 commissioners,” Kellner said. He made the case for a system with just two commissioners who work full-time. Currently, commissioners work part-time and employ executive staff to run the agency.
While none of the 10 commissioners from New York City appeared at the hearing, the city BOE sent Michael Ryan, executive director, and Dawn Sandow, deputy executive director, to testify on their behalf. Since both staff members report to the commissioners, they declined to weigh in on whether the structural change would improve their operations.
During their testimony, city elections officials were pressed to explain their hiring processes and how people at the agency are held accountable. The agency has long been scrutinized as one of the last bastions of patronage hiring available for political leaders because positions are not posted nor filled based on publicly stated criteria.
“Outside of technical jobs and a few other positions, we don't do job postings,” Ryan confirmed, adding, “but I think that that's the normal way things get done in a lot of the government processes, particularly with the smaller offices outside of the civil service system.”
Michael Ryan, NYC Board of Elections executive director, testified before a state senate panel on Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021.
Screengrab from State Senate livestream
At one point, Ryan, who has been absent from his position from the city BOE for five months to deal with health issues, pushed back on the criticism that his agency often faces. As an example, he brought up an instance from 2016 when it was discovered just days before the April presidential primary that more than 120,000 voters from Brooklyn were improperly removed from the voter rolls.
In a subsequent investigation by the New York State attorney general’s office, they found more than 200,000 people had ultimately been removed from the rolls across the city over the course of that year, a number Ryan disputes. He also sought to clarify that voters were not removed “in the dark of night with the flip of a switch,” but rather through an erroneous process that took place over the course of a year.
“Now, does that mean what happened was okay? No, but balance it with perspective and truth and then we'll take the lumps for the true stuff,” said Ryan.
After hearing from voters in Brooklyn, Rochester, Syracuse, the Hudson Valley, and Long Island this summer, lawmakers from the Elections Committee are expected to release a report later this year with additional legislative proposals to improve elections in the state.
Tuesday’s hearing also featured hours of testimony from good government groups, election reform advocates and legal experts who offered a myriad of ways elections could be run more professionally and reliably by making additional changes to election law, including making data about registration and turnout more easily accessible across the state.
As a reminder that the focus was intended to be on the experience of voters, the Elections Committee chair offered a withering response to the elections officials complaining about the ongoing scrutiny they face.
“You signed up for this,” said State Senator Myrie. “You signed up to be a guardian of our democracy.”
Tagged
democracy
elections
voting
reforms
state senate
Brigid Bergin
Brigid Bergin is an award-winning senior reporter on the People and Power desk. She is fiercely committed to telling stories that help people engage and support democracy. In 2022, she hosted a live, ten-week call-in politics show ahead of the midterm elections called The People's Guide to Power. Brigid's reporting in 2017 included some of the first coverage of a political newcomer now known as AOC. In 2016, she broke the news of a voter purge in Brooklyn just days before New York’s presidential primary, triggering city, state and federal investigations. Brigid also guest hosts The Brian Lehrer Show and All Of It. She graduated from the University at Albany and the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-723-4719.
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