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New York state has consistently had one of the highest absentee ballot rejection rates in the country. In the 2018 general election, state election officials discarded more than 34,000 absentee ballots – or about 14% of all absentee ballots cast.
This is, in part, because the state does not notify voters and give them an opportunity to respond when their ballots are in danger of not being counted because of benign issues – like an omitted signature or a perceived discrepancy between the signature on the absentee ballot envelope and the one in their voter registration file.
This is especially problematic in the context of the pandemic: it’s expected that more voters will vote absentee this year than ever before. CLC and partners filed a lawsuit urging a federal court to change New York’s flawed absentee ballot verification requirements in time for the 2020 general election. Democracy works best when all eligible voters can be confident that their vote will count.
Read more about our work to protect absentee voters.
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