New Yorkers will get to vote on three proposals to change the state\u2019s Constitution this November.\u00a0 An important question being voted on is a plan to change the way redistricting is done in New York.\u00a0 This past week, the state Board of Elections approved the language of the ballot question that will be put before the voters.<\/p>\n
And they have twisted the language in order to help drive New Yorkers to vote “yes.”<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s some background on the process.\u00a0 New York law requires that the state Board of Elections develop the ballot language that goes along with a constitutional amendment.\u00a0 Sometimes those amendments are quite technical and need a common sense explanation.\u00a0 The stated reason for the Board\u2019s explanatory language is to make these ballot questions understandable for voters who often have limited information on the issue.<\/p>\n
However, the law is weak \u2013 there is no requirement that the Board\u2019s ballot language must be unbiased; there is no requirement that the public have a meaningful opportunity to comment on the drafted ballot language; and there is no place where the public can go to get unbiased information on the potential benefits and costs of the proposal.<\/p>\n
The public saw the impact of those weaknesses of current law during last year\u2019s vote allowing casinos in New York.\u00a0 Last year, the Board \u2013 with reported pressure from the governor\u2019s office \u2013 advanced ballot language that was skewed toward supporting the casino amendment.\u00a0 The Board offered language that described the purported benefits of the casino amendment even though no such benefits existed in the constitutional amendment.\u00a0 The language stated that the creation of casinos in New York would help lower property taxes, increase school aid and create jobs, even though there was nothing in the amendment that said such things.<\/p>\n
The state Board of Elections on Friday approved the language of a constitutional amendment creating a new redistricting process, which voters will decide on in the fall.\u00a0 Redistricting is conducted every 10 years, with the next round starting after the 2020 Census.<\/p>\n
In addition to using language that surely will be difficult to understand to most voters (the Board\u2019s summary of the question contains 155 words), the Board approved ballot proposal language that inaccurately describes the proposed Redistricting Commission as “independent<\/em>,” a gross mischaracterization of a panel to be chosen by self-interested legislative leaders.<\/p>\n How the Board came to the conclusion that the proposed Commission would be independent is anyone\u2019s guess. \u00a0The Legislature chooses the Commission members, the Legislature still makes the ultimate decision on the Commission\u2019s districting plan, and if they don”t like it,the Legislature can reject the Commission\u2019s plan and draw their own lines.<\/p>\n As the public saw last year with the Board\u2019s casino ballot language,once again the ballot language has been “gamed” to drive voters to support the question.<\/p>\n The Board of Elections must make clarity, concision and neutrality its watchwords and guide stars when drafting constitutional amendment ballot language.\u00a0 Language that tends to incline New Yorkers to approve a government-supported proposal undermines voters” constitutional role as the final arbiters of whether the state\u2019s basic charter should be revised.\u00a0 Last week, the Board failed to meet those standards.<\/p>\n So what should be done?\u00a0 The state Board of Elections should hold public hearings to allow for public comment on the proposed question\u2019s language. \u00a0Also, the Legislature\u2019s Elections Committees should hold public hearings for public comment. \u00a0In both cases, those hearings must be held within a week, in order to allow for changes.<\/p>\n In addition, the governor and the Legislature should change state law to make it clear that ballot questions must be drafted in a comprehensible manner and that there is a strict prohibition on twisting the language to one side\u2019s advantage.\u00a0 That is the least the public deserves.<\/p>\n That\u2019s all for now.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be keeping an eye on the Capitol and will talk to you again next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New Yorkers will get to vote on three proposals to change the state\u2019s Constitution this November.\u00a0 An important question being voted on is a plan to change the way redistricting is done in New York.\u00a0 This past week, the state Board of Elections approved the language of the ballot question that will be put before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[77,37],"class_list":["post-1099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-board-of-elections","tag-redistricting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1099"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1464,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099\/revisions\/1464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}