{"id":3103,"date":"2024-10-28T11:58:19","date_gmt":"2024-10-28T15:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/?p=3103"},"modified":"2024-10-28T12:09:12","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T16:09:12","slug":"voting-in-a-toxic-political-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/voting-in-a-toxic-political-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"Voting in a Toxic Political Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After years of lies and threats, and then the violence of January 2021, election 2024 is looking like the worst one yet. There have been two attempted assassinations of Republican candidate Donald Trump. Add to that the growing reports<\/a> of threats of violence and actual attempts at harming poll workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These threats are the direct result of the toxic spewing that has marked the 2024 campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York is considered a reliably \u201cblue<\/a>\u201d state, one in which a Republican hasn\u2019t won a statewide election<\/a> in over two decades. Yet the threats are now brewing even here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While few expect the presidential vote count to be close, the road to control of the House of Representatives may run through New York. It was, after all, the surprising performance<\/a> of Republican Congressional candidates in New York that gave control of the House to the Republicans in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, the House races in New York are considered top priorities<\/a> for Democrats to win and Republicans to protect in 2024. That\u2019s why New Yorkers \u2013 particularly those in the Hudson Valley, Long Island, and Syracuse<\/a> \u2013 have been deluged with political ads, many of them incredibly negative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, New Yorkers now have to worry about their elections being the target of a plague of lies and threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, the County Boards of Elections in Delaware and Schoharie stopped the use of outdoor ballot drop boxes by voters due to security concerns. According to the Times Union<\/em> newspaper<\/a>, Schoharie Board of Elections officials said it was because the drop box was not secured and was not under camera surveillance. The drop box was used in the 2022 general election and the June primary without issue. But the Board of Elections recently raised concerns about it and, after consulting with the state Board of Elections, placed the drop box into storage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Delaware County, the chair of the county Board of Supervisors directed the ballot drop box to be moved inside the Board of Elections \u201cwhere it\u2019s more secure. . . . And so people still use it.\u201d Unfortunately, these moves make it a little bit harder to vote in those counties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These actions may seem like relatively benign pranks, even though the freestanding ballot boxes had been used without incident in the past. However, going after ballot boxes has been a notable tactic<\/a> nationwide for those looking to disrupt the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Threats cannot be ignored. The best response is to do all that can be done to protect poll workers and polling places. When these attacks occur, the rest of us have a duty to stand up for democracy, which means to vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The time to request a mail-in ballot has passed. If you have requested a mail in ballot, make sure you fill it out correctly and mail it in postmarked no later than November 5th<\/em>. Return envelopes already include postage and the return address of your Board of Elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you aren\u2019t voting by mail, you have two options. The first<\/em> is early voting and that period lasts through Nov. 3rd<\/sup>. Polling hours may vary, and early voting sites may differ from Election Day voting sites. The best way to know the hours for early voting and the polling locations \u2013 which are often different from those used for the traditional Election Day \u2013 is to check with the State Board of Elections website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second<\/em> option is to vote on the traditional Election Day, which is Tuesday November 5th<\/sup> during the period 6 a.m. through 9 p.m. (remember if you have voted during the early voting period, or if you voted by mail, you cannot vote again during the General Election).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, if any voter gets harassed at a polling place, or if there is some other difficulty, the New York State Attorney General runs an Election Protection Hotline that can help answer voters\u2019 questions. The Attorney General\u2019s hotline can be contacted at (866) 390-2992<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voters being harassed or otherwise inconvenienced can also request election-related assistance at any time through the Attorney General\u2019s online complaint form<\/a>. The Election Protection Hotline is staffed during the early voting period from 9am until 6pm and on Election Day from 6am to 9pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is beyond sad that Americans have to worry that a lunatic \u2013 sometimes violent \u2013 fringe amped up by campaign speeches and social media falsehoods have harmed our system of governance. There is no excuse for the hateful political speech and threats of violence that we are experiencing. But we can draw inspiration and comfort knowing that for hundreds of years the courage of prior generations has stood up to all sorts of evil \u2013 both foreign and domestic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now it\u2019s our turn. Don\u2019t let the haters win: vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After years of lies and threats, and then the violence of January 2021, election 2024 is looking like the worst one yet. There have been two attempted assassinations of Republican candidate Donald Trump. Add to that the growing reports of threats of violence and actual attempts at harming poll workers. These threats are the direct […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3103","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3103"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3106,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3103\/revisions\/3106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}