A coalition of Republican groups and lawmakers hit the State of New York and its Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul with a lawsuit on Wednesday over attempts to open absentee voting to all residents without any excuse needed to justify why a voter is unable to cast a ballot in-person.
In their complaint, the group — made up of the Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, New York GOP, and New York Conservative Party along with the Republican members of the Empire State's congressional delegation — says that New York Democrats' new mail voting law violates the New York State Constitution's clear rules on absentee voting.
From the lawsuit:
The Mail-Voting Law is a blatant violation of Aricle II, § 2 of the New York State Constitution, which requires qualified voters to cast their vote in any election in person at their designated polling places unless they will be unable to do so because, on the occurrence of any such election, they will either be (a) absent from their county of residence (or the City of New York if they reside in New York City) or (b) unable to appear at the polling place because of illness or physical disability. These are the only exceptions to the requirements in Article II, § 2 that qualified voters must vote in person.
Republicans say that, in order for New York to lawfully implement excuse-free absentee voting, the state's constitution must first be amended — a step that Gov. Hochul and Democrat legislators skipped in their zeal to change the voting rules ahead of the 2024 election.
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel pointed out that "New Yorkers had a chance to vote on this policy in 2021 and they overwhelmingly rejected it," adding the "RNC and its partners are stepping in because Kathy Hochul and New York Democrats are ignoring the outcome of that vote to push an unconstitutional attack on mail-in voting safeguards. Undermining election integrity is bad enough – circumventing the democratic process to do so is absolutely unacceptable," noted McDaniel.
As summarized in the Republicans' lawsuit, the 2021 attempt to amend the constitution with a ballot question "Authorizing No-Excuse Absentee Ballot Voting" was "overwhelmingly" rejected by New York voters. "Although New Yorkers had voted for many expansions of mail voting in the past, they decided that his proposal went too far," the complaint says.
House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, a member of the New York delegation and a party to the lawsuit, slammed "Kathy Hochul and extreme New York Democrats" for "trying to destroy what is left of election integrity in New York" after already making elections "less secure and less transparent" and now "unconstitutional."
"As a New York voter, I am proud to lead this coalition in defending basic election integrity on behalf of all New Yorkers," said Stefanik.
The NRCC's Chairman Richard Hudson meanwhile, questioned Hochul and her ilk's priorities. "New York Democrats are more focused on rigging the rules than winning on issues," he said. "Instead of working to stop crime, lower inflation and ensure parents’ rights in schools, they stick to their extreme policies that New Yorkers rejected once and will again in 2024," he added.
New York GOP Chairman Ed Cox declared that "when Democrats can’t compete, they cheat."
"This cynical attempt to overrule the will of the voters and undermine the Democratic process is being challenged in court," Cox said of the Republicans' lawsuit. "Rather than work to stem the flow of our most productive taxpaying citizens out of the state, radical progressives are working to manipulate elections in their favor in their pursuit of power at all costs."
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