My testimony to the New York Joint Legislative Hearing: Elections in a Pandemic: A Review of the 2020 Primaries

Thank you for having this hearing and opportunity to testify. I am a co-lead organizer of Empire State Indivisible. The indivisible movement is predicated on holding those we elect to serve and the institutions of our democracy to account.

I was also a candidate for Assembly and witness to the count in Queens for the Queens New Reformer candidates. I witnessed the entire primary on the ground as an organizer, voter, and candidate. This testimony is some of what I witnessed and thoughts on how to solve these issues for November.

The executive order allowing absentee balloting for the primary was absolutely necessary but should have been accompanied by measures to make sure voters were not disenfranchised and to plan for any problems that could arise.

For November, the state legislature has made a strong start passing bills that will help solve some of the issues. The governor must sign these bills into law. And the legislature must quickly pass additional bills that will solve more of the problems, increase voter registration, and pay for postage.

Along with these bills, we need a clear, comprehensive November election plan made by the BOEs and all relevant parties that is shared fully with the public.

We also need to make the absentee balloting process clearer and easier for voters by

• Having a system to track absentee ballots that voters can access.
• Promoting that the absentee ballot envelopes must be signed by the voter and highlighting on the envelope where it should be signed.
• Providing explicit instructions with absentee ballots that voters must place their absentee ballot into the ballot envelope, seal it, sign it, and then place the ballot envelope into the mailing envelope.
• Accept and not invalidate ballot envelopes partially sealed or sealed with tape or glue if the voter can confirm that is how they sent their ballot.

Both my campaign team and Empire State Indivisible received many questions from New York voters about all aspects of voting in the primary. We were often scrambling to make sure we provided correct information to voters because the answers were changing or not always available or clear.

For November, the state must fund a campaign to inform all New York voters about all aspects of voting. This campaign must reach New York voters in the languages and mediums they use. It should not be left to advocacy groups, activists, and candidates to do this.

Once the absentee balloting process started we had difficulty getting timely data on the number of ballots requested, when ballots were sent to voters, the number of absentee ballots received back to the BOE, how many of those ballots were invalidated and why.

For November, data needs to be made available to the public in real time or as quickly as possible so we can see where there is potential disenfranchisement and work to fix it.

On election day across Queens, we saw long lines to vote, misdirection of where to go, voting machines that malfunctioned, and that both ballots were not always given to voters.

For November we need to make sure that polling places are adequately staffed and all poll workers thoroughly trained. We must test voting machines prior to election day to ensure they are operational. And we should consider extending early voting and add locations.

I witnessed nearly every day of the count at Queens Borough Hall. The NYC BOE workers were committed to getting it right — they worked diligently and with great care showing pride in their work of upholding our democracy. We should thank them for their commitment by making sure we get it right for November by

• Funding each county’s BOE to have adequate staff to organize ballots and secure locations large enough to maximize staff and ensure ballots are counted quickly.
• Making sure that all BOEs follow the same count process. I understand that the process in Queens was different than in Manhattan and as a result more efficient.

The primary and the pandemic have exposed the problems with our elections. We need bold democracy reform to continue what started in our state in January 2019. In researching this testimony, I discovered that there are well over a hundred democracy reform bills — some, if passed, would engage more people in our democracy and the electoral process plus modernize systems and instill confidence in our elections. I hope next year, when we are through this election and pandemic there will be hearings like this to plan for our future.