New York’s highest court to rule on ballot law that could decide to close House races

New York Republicans are warning that a law relaxing verification measures for mail-in ballots could lead to fraudulent votes in future elections that could determine the outcome of races that will decide which party controls the House.

New York’s Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, is weighing whether to uphold a provision of a 2021 law governing how election officials should handle a ballot if a board of canvassers is deadlocked if applicable in this case. Amedure v. New York.

Before the law was passed, a board of inspectors, ENCOMPASSING an equal number of “representatives of the two major political parties,” would examine envelopes containing absentee ballots or military ballots to determine whether they are valid.

A former congressman who represented New York, John Faso, told The New York Sun that under the old law, commissioners who examine ballot envelopes before they are opened could raise concerns if a voter’s signature differs significantly from his signature on file. If officials disagreed on its validity, it would be voided until it could be reviewed by a judge.

Under the 2021 law, if officials can’t agree on the ballot validthey will “prepare such bulletin to be expressed and solicited.”

Mr Faso says that under the new law, if there is a disagreement, the parties will “count the vote anyway”. There is no “recourse” to contest the ballot after it has been counted.

In oral arguments, attorneys for the Republicans argument before the Court of Appeals that the law could allow ballots without signatures to be counted if commissioners contacted voters to correct the problems and did not hear back by the deadline to fix the errors.

Additionally, they suggested that under the law, a commissioner could disagree as to whether a ballot was cast by someone who is registered to vote in another state or who is dead and the ballot will be counted.

However, state attorneys argued that while the ballots that are cast cannot be challenged or overturned, process observers could go to court to stop the canvassing process if they witness “systemic corruption.”

The law is an “insult to fair elections” in the state, says New York State Republican Committee spokesman David Laska.

In response to an earlier challenge to the law, state Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris accused Republicans are trying to make New York “a laughing stock again when it comes to our election process.”

He said the law is designed to speed up the vote counting process and ensure that legal votes are not disqualified.

Mr. Gianaris dismissed the ongoing challenge to the law, telling the Sun the case is a “waste” of time and money and an attempt by Republicans to “infringe” on New Yorkers’ basic constitutional rights.

Potential impact on house races

Democrats are targeting a trio of New York House seats that Republicans won in 2022 in their bid to win back the House.

Congressman Mike Lawler from New York’s 17th District won his election by less than 2,000 votes; Congressman Marc Molinaro of New York’s 19th district won the election by about 4,500 votes; and Congressman Anthony D’Esposito won his race by just 10,000 votes.

An election forecaster, the Cook Political Report, LISTS those three runs as throws. Meanwhile, it lists New York’s 22nd Congressional District, where a Republican congressman, Brandon Williams, is seeking another term, as “leaning Democrat.”

These races could decide which party controls the House and could be ripe territory for challenges or scrutiny over ballot-handling procedures.

Studies have found that the chance of fraud associated with mail-in ballots is very high low. Some problems with ballots, such as missing signatures, are not always due to fraud. Such mistakes could be the result of not reading the instructions on the postal ballot.

Additionally, the national absentee ballot rejection rate for such issues is relatively low. In 2022, the national rejection rate it was 1.5 percent, and New York was in line with the national average.

However, in races where the margins of victory could be slim, with no possibility of ballot concerns being reviewed, questions about which ballots were counted in crucial elections could threaten to overshadow the results.

Indeed, two judges who dissident of an earlier decision to uphold the law said it “has the potential to inhibit the rights of New Yorkers to vote by preventing objections to someone else casting their vote on their behalf.”

In a race like Mr. Lawler’s in 2022, where fewer than 2,000 votes out of nearly 300,000 votes decided the election, relaxed absentee ballot procedures could result in enough votes being exposed that otherwise would have been rejected to change the results.

With margins so narrow in high-profile races, questions about which votes count could lead to protracted fights over the results and efforts to challenge the outcome.