Onondaga County’s Republican Elections Commissioner says she’d welcome many of the state attorney general’s proposals to improve voter access in New York. This year’s presidential primary seemed to expose the shortcomings of the state’s restrictive voting laws.
Commissioner Helen Kiggins Walsh says most of the complaints to the board of elections in the weeks leading up to and on primary day were from voters who wanted to participate in the election…but couldn’t.
"People were just very upset they couldn't change their party at the last minute. Or, 'I've always voted republican.' Well, you never voted in a primary before; you're not affiliated with the republican party or the democratic party," Kiggins Walsh said. "Conservatives wanted to vote in the republican primary; working families people wanted to vote in the democratic primary. It was just very confusing for people."
The cutoff date for voters to enroll in a party or change their enrollment in time for the April primary was last October 9th.
"It is a long time," Kiggins Walsh said. "Maybe 60 days or so would be a better window, rather than 6, 7, 8, in some cases 11 months if it's a September primary."
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman actually proposes a much smaller window of 25 days for already registered voters. Some voters face yet another barrier to the ballot box if they move to another county within New York and have to re-register.
"We have a statewide database now," Kiggins Walsh said. "I don't see any reason why we couldn't transfer that information from one county to another, and I think that would be a good thing. It would eliminate a lot of confusion."
Tens of thousands of New Yorkers opted apply for voter registration online this election cycle through the DMV. Kiggins Walsh says she wasn’t a fan at first. She recalls one voter called the office a week prior to the primary insisting they registered. That opened a can of worms.
"Since they had a receipt, we had a number we could go back and check," Kiggins Walsh said. "There were 143 forms that were not forwarded to us on that day that would have been timely. So we got them all processed, sent them out a quick letter saying you are registered and can vote in this primary...this was for the presidential primary, but your name won't be in the book. So we turned that around in a day."
Kiggins Walsh says the DMV's system is improving, and could be the foundation of a larger online voter application portal. When it comes time to actually cast ballots, she does not support the AG’s proposal for early voting, but she can get behind no-excuse absentee voting.
"We have the ability to do that easily and efficiently, and wouldn't cost a lot of money," Kiggins Walsh said. "Early voting is very expensive, and I don't think it increases [turnout]. But if people could get an absentee ahead of time, I think most of those people would be happy."
Despite its shortcomings, Kiggins Walsh says overall, the current system is still fair and accessible. State lawmakers and the governor would have to agree to and act upon Schneiderman’s proposed reforms.
