Are Democrats for or Agains Prop 10

The city is not but choosing a new mayor in Nov. This fall, New York voters must likewise decide on v proposed changes to the state constitution.

Five ballot proposals are upwards for a vote in the general election on Nov. ii. They include questions on the future of political representation in Albany, environmental protections, easier voter registration and absentee balloting, and how New York's civil courts function.

The full text of the five proposals are listed on the Lath of Elections website and at Ballotpedia, the nonprofit political encyclopedia. But voters who aren't political mavens may need a chip of context:

Where do these election proposals come from?

Different California, for example, where citizens can initiate a ballot proposal, New York is one of 24 states where the measures must come from legislators simply, non direct from the people.

The 5 proposals up for consideration in November all came from Albany, where our reps voted for them in both the Assembly and the State Senate before they could make it on your ballot, noted.

An absentee ballot for the November 2021 general election in New York City.

Hasani Gittens/THE CITY

Before getting on the ballot, the proposals must exist canonical by both houses of the legislature, and so voted on again in both chambers after the Senate and Assembly have had one election cycle. Since New York legislator's terms are ii years long, it could have between two and four years to pass a ballot measure.

Then, when information technology's fix for voters, the state Board of Elections converts the ofttimes dense, legal language passed by the legislature into fairly plain text on the ballot.

"The Lath of Elections is non only designing the ballot itself, but they're writing the question that voters see," Ryan Byrne, leader of the Ballot Measure Project at Ballotpedia.

That doesn't necessarily mean the ballot measures are like shooting fish in a barrel to empathize.

Ballotpedia tallies how difficult information technology is to read election measures across the country, and this year, New York's five proposals are at a grade level "xiv," on average — meaning two years after high school "halfway through a available'southward degree," Byrne said.

Simply that'southward on the depression finish, relatively speaking. In Colorado, he said, state ballot measures are at a grade level "32" this year — the equivalent of a doctoral caste and so some.

How likely is information technology that the proposals will pass?

Statistically speaking, pretty likely. In New York, voters approved 74% of statewide ballot measures between 1985 and 2020, Ballotpedia institute.

"Overwhelmingly, they get approved," said Rachael Fauss, senior research analyst for Reinvent Albany, a government watchdog group.

Board of Elections workers count absentee and affidavit ballots, July iii, 2019.

Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY

Ballotpedia constitute that in odd-numbered election years, proposals in New York accept been canonical 65% of the time. In even-numbered years, that number goes upward to 83%.

Typically, the people who vote on election measures are "the people who are paying attention to them, generally," Fauss said.

Plus, it takes a chip more effort to read and make full out ballot proposals. Ofttimes, they're on a second page.

"A lot of people leave them bare," Fauss said.

What happens to a ballot proposal later we vote?

New York voters have the concluding say on ballot measures and, if they're approved, they'll become into issue on Jan. ane, 2022.

"The enactment process for state constitutional amendments is the voter. So, voters are essentially interim equally that signature or veto," he said.

If the measure is voted downwardly, information technology's scrapped and would have to be reintroduced and passed by the Legislature again to appear on a future ballot.

The Ballot Measures

Proposal ane — Redistricting

The first election proposal is really several questions rolled into ane, all on the field of study of redistricting.

Redistricting is the process that country lawmakers go through to redraw the boundaries of Congressional and state legislative districts based on the new population numbers reported from the one time-a-decade demography.

It's a complicated and important procedure that volition shape political representation at all levels for the next decade.

Proposal 1 asks voters to approve several constitutional changes to the redistricting procedure. Supporters say the proposal is key to making sure it all gets washed on time and with less partisan bias. Detractors, particularly from the Republican Party, say the mensurate is Autonomous scale-tipping that leaves the political minority with less power.

There are more than a dozen individual changes to the constitution wrapped upward in Proposal 1, but voters must vote yes or no on them all together. Here are the top changes, according to experts:

• Cap the total number of land senators at 63
• Crave that incarcerated people be counted at the address where they lived before going to jail or prison house for the purposes of redistricting — not where they are being detained
• Move up the timeline by two weeks for when redistricting plans must exist submitted to the legislature
• Change the vote total needed to adopt redistricting plans when one political party controls both legislative houses

The state senator cap is an try by Albany lawmakers to forestall future legislators from creating new districts to tip the partisan balance of the legislature.

The measure regarding incarcerated people will ban what'southward called "prison gerrymandering" — or counting inmates where they are incarcerated rather than where they lived before going to prison or jail, said Jeff Wice, a New York Law Schoolhouse professor and redistricting skillful.

The measure out would, on the whole, boost the population of downstate counties, specially in New York Urban center, and have away from the upstate counties where many state prisons are located. State constabulary already includes a ban on prison gerrymandering for state-level political districts, but Proposal 1 would enshrine information technology in the constitution for Congressional-level redistricting, as well.

Staten Island could run into if Congressional lines redrawn under redistricting.

Jayne Lipkovich/Shutterstock

The proposal would also stipulate that when i party controls the Associates and State Senate — as the Democrats do at present in Albany — just a unproblematic bulk would be required to approve of the redistricting plans that come from the then-called Independent Redistricting Commission.

Currently, two-thirds of each house must corroborate redistricting maps if one party controls the Legislature. Democrats in the Senate and Associates both have a supermajority in their chambers.

Wice supports the proposal and says though there are many of import pieces to it, the well-nigh crucial may exist a seemingly dry calendar change.

To cope with a pandemic-related delay in the release of 2020 Census data and New York's relatively new June primary date, Proposal 1 would move back the date the Commission must first submit its redistricting maps to the Legislature by ii weeks, from Jan. 15 to January. 1, 2022. If the Legislature rejects the beginning plan, the Commission would and so accept to submit some other typhoon by Jan. fifteen instead of the current borderline of Feb. 28, 2022.

For future once-a-decade redistricting processes in 2032, 2042 and so on, Proposal i would set the first and second deadlines from the committee on November. 15 and Jan. i, respectively.

This is important to requite plenty fourth dimension for the Commission to hammer out the new election districts earlier candidates must, by land law, commencement gathering signatures — a process known as petitioning — to become their names on the ballot in those districts. (Just state lawmakers can nonetheless take matters into their own hands and draw the boundaries themselves if they don't similar what the committee comes up with.)

If voters don't approve the change and the boundaries aren't set for election districts before candidates must start petitioning and campaigning, that could mean a messy rush for hopefuls competing in a June chief, Wice said.

"That'southward, in part, why this amendment was crafted and put forward," he said.

But opponents of the proposal — especially those amongst the land's Republicans — are pushing back difficult. In an interview on the issue with Spectrum News, sometime U.S. Rep. John Faso described Proposal 1 as "a very cynical maneuver" by the Democrats to "consolidate their ability."

"The true purpose of this entire thing is to eviscerate any ability of the minority party, in this case Republicans, to accept a role in the redistricting process," he said.

Skilful government groups in the state are split on the measure. New York Common Cause and New York Public Interest Research Grouping chosen it an imperfect but necessary change.

The two groups cheered the 63-senator cap, proposed rules for counting incarcerated New Yorkers, timetable changes and other measures while noting "the proposal falls brusk of the total reforms we believe would provide truly independent [redistricting] commission," they said in a articulation statement earlier this yr.

The League of Women Voters of New York State wants voters to turn down the proposal. The grouping said Proposal 1 "would weaken the part of the minority political party."

Want more info? The full text of Proposal i tin can be found hither from the country Board of Election, Ballotpedia's guide on the proposal is hither and this deep-dive on the measure out from Spectrum News is a great resources for understanding the issues at play.

Proposal two — Environmental Rights

The second election measure would add a broad new correct to the state constitution: "Each person shall take a right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment."

Sounds unproblematic? That'due south by design. Environmental advocates who advocated for this measure wanted the language to be general — to button government officials into "making sure that the environment is given that highest level of recognition and protection," said Maya K. van Rossum, CEO of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, a Pennsylvania-based environmental group.

In New York, supporters include the League of Conservation Voters, Environmental Advocates of New York, the Adirondack Mount Society and the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance.

Similar state amendments take been on the books in Pennsylvania and Montana since the 1970s. Van Rossum says her grouping and several municipalities used Pennsylvania's measure out in 2013 to successfully block provisions of a law that would have expanded fracking beyond the land.

Vehicles pack the Brooklyn Queens Freeway in Williamsburg, May xv, 2019.

Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY

The simplicity of the language, still, is a chief business for those who oppose the ballot measure. They say the new proposal will invite a slew of unnecessary lawsuits.

Michael Giaimo, Northeast region director for the American Petroleum Institute, warned that "as written, the provision could result in extensive and costly litigation as the courts volition invariably demand to translate the new ramble subpoena."

Tom Stebbins, executive manager of the Lawsuit Reform Brotherhood of New York, which opposes the measure, said: "We need public servants to regulate our ecology laws. We don't need profit-seeking attorneys to litigate our laws."

Just Peter Iwanowicz, executive director of Ecology Advocates of New York, said only those harming the environment accept a reason to think negatively.

"If you're non polluting the air or making water dangerous to drink, and so you should non accept whatever problems with this amendment," he said.

Proposals 3 and 4 — Elections and Voting

The third and 4th ballot measures both aim to modify rules to permit easier admission to the polls.

Proposal 3 would remove a current constitutional dominion that you must register to vote at least 10 days before an election in New York.

That would give the green light for aforementioned-day voter registration in New York — if the legislature approves information technology down the line.

People line up to vote in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn on Ballot 24-hour interval, Nov. 3, 2020.

Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY

Jordan Pantalone, intergovernmental liaison for New York'southward Campaign Finance Board, said the measure will make it easier on the many New Yorkers who don't melody into politics until the final infinitesimal.

"Every election nosotros're getting letters from voters maxim, 'Hey I want to go vote,' and information technology'south five days before the election, so they're unable to practise and so," he said.

If voters approve Proposal 3, the Assembly and State Senate tin can write a new law explicitly allowing would-be voters to register on Election Day. Autonomous leaders in both houses have indicated they program to exercise and then if the election measure out goes through.

Similarly, Proposal iv would aught a state constitutional rule that says voters must have an excuse, or valid reason, to vote with an absentee ballot. If the proposal gets voter approval, it would clear the way for the country Legislature to make no-alibi absentee voting a permanent option.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, widespread voting by absentee ballot was finer allowed for any New Yorker due to an emergency executive order from then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The club said any voter at risk of contracting the virus could legally request an absentee ballot.

Voters took advantage of the option and cast absentee ballots five times as much as they had in previous elections. This ballot measure aims to clear a pathway for doing away with the need for any excuse.

Proposal 5 — Civil Court's Claim Limit

The 5th ballot proposal seeks to change the monetary limit on claims in the city's civil court, which is regulated by the state constitution.

Currently, in New York City'due south Civil Court, only cases involving claims worth $25,000 or less may be heard. Proposal v would elevator that limit to $50,000.

Why do this? At the fourth dimension it was proposed and approved in the Legislature, bill sponsor State Senator Luis Sepulveda cited a need to reduce the caseload in the courtroom system, peculiarly State Supreme Court, which currently takes on any cases involving claims over $25,000.

Sidney Cherubin, a Brooklyn Police School professor and director of legal services at the Brooklyn Volunteer Lawyers Projection, supports the subpoena every bit "an attempt to make the judicial system more efficient and to amend serve the needs of New Yorkers," he said.

"It doesn't solve everything, merely information technology's a step in the right management," he said.

Simply he stressed that more cases in Civil Court will make a busy court even more than bogged downward — and, ballot measure out aside, lawmakers need to allocate funding and more staff to the court system to make sure it runs smoothly.

If Proposal 5 passes, it volition exist the beginning time the claims jurisdiction has changed in Civil Court since 1983. Voters considered a nearly identical ballot measure to increment the claims jurisdiction to $fifty,000 in 1995, but information technology was narrowly defeated.

"It may have to do with the fact that this affects New York City and not the rest of the state," Cherubin said. "And so, people don't care. It doesn't impact them, and then why carp?"

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Source: https://www.thecity.nyc/civic-newsroom/2021/10/5/22711648/what-the-five-ballot-proposal-questions-mean-for-new-yorkers-this-november

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