The anticipated new law would allow all registered voters to request an early mail voting ballot from their local board of elections. It also requires the BOE to establish and maintain an online system where voters can apply for and track their early voting ballot applications, similar to the system already in place for voters to request an absentee ballot. Voters would then need to submit those early mail voting ballots before the polls close on Election Day.
The COVID-19 pandemic, so far, has had some lasting effects on how people cast ballots in the U.S.
According to a new report from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, mail voting rates in the U.S. "remained higher than pre-pandemic levels" during last year's midterm elections, when more than 35 million mail ballots were cast and counted.
It's been an open question as to whether the pandemic would have any long-term impact on how people vote in the U.S. Ahead of the 2020 election, many states opened up their vote by mail programs to more voters and officials also created more early voting options. And many voters took advantage of those options.
"Michigan's election for governor was upended last year when several Republicans were removed from the primary ballot for problems with their voter signatures.
The news highlighted instances of suspected fraud in the process, which experts say could be encouraged by higher rates signature-gathering companies are now charging for their services.
As a result, states such as Colorado and California are hoping to crack down on bad actors in the signature-gathering industry."
When you look at election-related crime in New York, petition signature forgery and residency issues usually are the common. Residency often plays in when candidates run in districts that are poor and urban, where the candidate says they live in a neighborhood when they actually have a nice home in the suburbs where they actually live. In both cases, the stakes are high, which can encourage cheating.