Empire State Today

The Heritage Foundation’s Hans von Spakovsky and John Fund say two "reckless election changes" were defeated in November in New York state. One would have allowed same-day voter registration, the other permitted no-fault absentee balloting.

Fund and von Spakovsky say that the defeat of the measures, overshadowed by the Virginia and New Jersey governors’ races, is a big blow to progressives and efforts to loosen election security.

“When combined with the fact that New York has no ID requirement, same-day registration raises serious security concerns,” they wrote. “Anyone willing to cheat can walk into any polling place [or places], register under a fake name and address, cast a ballot, then walk out of the polling place scot-free. And election officials can do absolutely nothing to stop it.”

The Heritage Foundation is a think tank based in Washington, D.C.

Unrestricted use of absentee ballots presents one of the top opportunities for voter fraud, they argue. The writers cite a 1998 report by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that concluded that the “lack of ‘in-person, at-the-polls’ accountability make absentee ballots the ‘tool of choice’ for those inclined to commit voter fraud.”

This finding is backed by the conclusions of the bipartisan 16-year-old Commission on Federal Election Reform chaired by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker. One of its most notable conclusions was that “absentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud.”

As Fund pointed out in a separate piece, a Miami–Dade County grand jury in 2012 issued a public report recommending that Florida change its law to prohibit ballot harvesting unless the ballots are “those of the voter and members of the voter’s immediate family.” 

“Once that ballot is out of the hands of the elector, we have no idea what happens to it,” they pointed out. “The possibilities are numerous and scary.”

The ballot results show that New York’s two senators, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, both Democrats, are out of touch with voters on election security in their state, and with voters nationwide, Fund and von Spakovsky argued.

Numerous public opinion polls taken during the past year show voters across all demographics support tighter election security, including voter ID.

Both New York senators support legislation that would seize control of the states’ constitutional authority to enact laws and regulatory procedures for the administration of their elections, the Heritage Foundation writers say. Legislation in Congress, most notably the For the People Act (House Resolution 1), and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (House Resolution 4) would ban voter ID, allow same-day registration and unfettered use of mail ballots. The House passed both bills, but they have been bottled up in the Senate.

Fund and von Spakovsky said that despite the defeat of the New York ballot measures, they “expect liberals to work even harder to change the rules in ways that, regardless of their motives, will make it easier to cheat and easier to manipulate election results. The results could be catastrophic to the integrity and security of the election process.”

Much of the debate about election security started with former President Donald Trump's baseless argument that he lost the 2020 presidential race due to voter fraud.