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Leadership
The nation celebrates the birthday of Martin Luther King this week. This holiday recognizes the role Dr. King played in fundamentally changing the way the nation treats African Americans. His achievements are examples of the role leadership can play in moving policy in a profoundly better direction. It’s that kind of leadership that is sadly lacking in Albany today. The Help America Vote Act, or HAVA, was passed by the Congress in 2002 and is supposed to strengthen the way America votes by changing voter registration requirements and mandating new voting machines. The Help America Vote Act left great latitude to states in implementing the law. In New York, the lack of effective leadership during the implementation process may have undermined the way elections are run in this state. Just how badly the Governor and the legislature botched the job was made crystal clear last week when the US Department of Justice alerted New York of its intention to sue the state for failing to move quickly enough on implementing the HAVA requirements. In its letter to the state, the Department of Justice argued “it is clear that New York is not close to approaching full HAVA compliance and, in our view, is further behind in that regard than any other state in the country.” Why is New York State last in the land? A failure of leadership. Once the Help America Vote Act was enacted, states – including New York – starting gearing up for the debate over implementation. In New York, the then-long time head of the State Board of Elections stated that he would create an inclusive advisory group to hold public hearings and work to develop a statewide consensus on how the new law should be implemented. Apparently that approach caused problems with the Governor. A few months after making that statement, the head of the Board of Elections was unceremoniously bounced from his leadership role in implementing HAVA. The State Board then put together a remarkably unrepresentative advisory group and held only few public hearings. The Governor issued a report and then stepped back from the limelight on the issue. With little guidance form the Governor, both the Senate and Assembly in 2004 passed their own versions of implementation laws and began open public conferences to negotiate their differences. The Senate leader of the negotiating team, Tom Morahan from Rockland County, made it clear that the wished to hammer out an agreement. Yet his conciliatory efforts were constantly pulled back by Senator Bruno’s office. So nothing happened. In 2005, negotiations were re-started – and Senator Morahan was eliminated from the discussions. By the end of the 2005 session, both sides agreed to a package of bills – some good, some bad – which included dramatic changes in the way New Yorkers register to vote and allowed localities to begin buying new voting machines to replace the lever machines now in use. But passing these bills in June was too late to meet the looming federal deadline of having the implementation law in place by the 2006 elections. And now the “chickens have come home to roost” – New York is in the worst position of any state in the nation. Forty years after the courageous efforts of Dr. King, New York may experience changes to its voting systems that could result in new obstacles to the right to vote. The state’s leadership vacuum has resulted in flawed laws and decision making paralysis that may well lead to a federal lawsuit. The Governor should work with the federal government to obtain a waiver from the 2006 requirement, thus giving the state time to do it right and have a new voting system in place by 2007. The Governor should use his last year to lead the way toward making New York’s election system a model for the nation, instead of a model of dysfunction. That’s all for now. I’ll be keeping an eye on the Capitol and will talk to your again next week. |
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