Early Voting Begins on October 26th in New York!

This past legislative session has seen many reforms to New York State's voting infastructure, through legislation as well as the 2019-20 fiscal budget. Here are some of the major reforms that are now law:

• Early Voting  reform allows for primary and general elections to be open 10 days prior to Election Day. Opening up the opportunity to vote for a lot more New Yorkers. 
• Consolidation of State and Federal Primaries into a single date tocomply with the federal Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment(MOVE) Act.
• Voter Registration Transfer requires the Board of Elections to transfer the registration and enrollment of a voter to wherever they move in NYS
• Close the LLC Loophole. LLCs will now have the same aggregate con-tribution limit of $5,000 that applies to corporations; and increase transparency by requiring disclosure of the identity of individuals with mem-bership interests in LLCs and attribute contributions to members of LLCs.
• Pre-Registration of Eligible 16 –Year-Olds, which would automatical-ly make them registered voters by the time they reach the age of 18.
• Extend Party Registration Deadline to February 14th to allow moretime for a voter to enroll in a party prior to a primary election.
• All statewide primary poll sites will now be open from 6am to 9pm,creating a more uniform process across the state.
• Establishes a temporary Public Campaign Financing and Election Commission to make recommendations for the implementation of a voluntarypublic campaign financing system for statewide public offices. TheCommission has to report to the Legislature by December 1, 2019, saidrecommendation shall become law by December 22, 2019 unless over-turned by the legislature

For more information on the new election reforms and the Early Voting process, including polling locations and times in Brooklyn, click here.