Saratoga County Supreme Court hearing arguments on absentee ballot rules

The Saratoga County Supreme Court was scheduled to hear arguments Wednesday challenging state laws governing who is eligible for an absentee ballot in New York and how they are canvassed.

Ahead of the meeting, the heads of Common Cause New York, and the state’s Civil Liberties Union, both issued the following statements.

“This is a blatant attempt to disenfranchise New Yorkers who have every right to their health and their vote. Nursing mothers, cancer survivors, and immunocompromised senior citizens shouldn’t have to contend with anti-democracy efforts to undo an established and successful voting method. It’s manufactured chaos, nothing else, and the courts shouldn’t allow themselves to be used by these bad faith actors,” said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause/NY. 

“This GOP’s lawsuit challenging New York’s absentee voter program is a thinly veiled effort to prevent vulnerable New Yorkers from voting and to disrupt and undermine public confidence in the electoral process. This baseless lawsuit is of a piece with the Republican Party’s discredited — but undeterred — nationwide voter suppression campaign. The right to vote is a fundamental pillar of our democracy, and State Republicans should strive to ensure all voters have their ballots counted, especially as more New Yorkers come to rely on absentee voting,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.