The Brennan Center regularly compiles the latest news concerning the corrosive nature of money in New York State politics—and the ongoing need for public financing and robust campaign finance reform. This week’s links were contributed by Eric Petry.
For more stories on an ongoing basis, follow the Twitter hashtags#moNeYpolitics and #fairelex.NEW YORK
City Board of Elections Creates Another Poorly
Designed Ballot
The New
York City Board of Elections has come under scrutiny in recent years for designing
confusing ballots that led to tens of thousands of
votes being
thrown out as invalid. It appears that 2014 could be no different. One of the recurring issues with the Board’s
ballots has been that candidates for the same races are split onto multiple
lines. Splitting contests, which this year’s ballot does, can cause voters to accidentally
choose more than one candidate when completing their ballot. Another troubling
design feature of this year’s ballot is that it favors the major parties,
while discriminating against the minor parties. Voters who support the
Democrats or Republicans will find the ballot very straightforward, because Democratic
and Republican candidates are aligned separately from the minor party
candidates. Minor party voters, on the other hand, will have to search through
the confusing cluster of other candidates to find their choice. The Brennan
Center for Justice, a consistent advocate for ballot improvement, sent a letter to the New York City
Board of Elections this week detailing how the design flaws harm minor
political parties, and urging the Board to take action to address these issues.
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