On April 14th I posted a story (which I have now deleted) that stated the voting hours for many people living in New York state had been “cut by six hours” if they lived in a county outside NYC, its suburbs and Erie County.
While it is true that voters in those other counties will have six less hours in which to cast their votes in the New York Primary on Tuesday, it was misleading of me to say that those hours had been cut, or to imply that this was something new for this election cycle.
The simple fact is that all primary elections held in New York have, in effect, suppressed the vote of people who live outside downstate New York (and Buffalo) by limiting the hours the polls are open for decades.
The law is a peculiarity that vexes early-rising voters and elections boards alike, not to mention reinforces stereotypes of downstate superiority.
“The varying hours of operating for polling places strike at the heart of one’s voting rights,” state Supreme Court Justice Lawrence Kahn wrote in finding the law unconstitutional in 1982. “A farmer in his pickup truck is entitled to the same opportunity to vote in a primary as a subway commuter.”
Kahn, who is now a federal judge, was right. That hasn’t mattered for years, though, because he was reversed on appeal and the state’s highest court upheld that extending voting hours for some New Yorkers and not others was “reasonable.”
Unfortunately, Justice Kahn’s decision was overruled. And ever since them, this separate and unequal treatment of voters simply on the basis of where they live has continued to exist. Welcome to New York, a state just as politically corrupt as Illinois or New Jersey, if not moreso.
Nonetheless, I let my umbrage at obvious inequity of allowing some voters more hours to vote than others get the better of my judgment. I’m sorry. That was wrong of me. And I should have corrected my mistake sooner. Again, the errors in that post are mine alone and I accept full responsibility for it.
I’m not a journalist, but I should have done my homework on this matter. I can only ask your forgiveness for this mistake, though I cannot and do not expect those of you who were misled in any way by my story to give it to me.
Aside from the correction and apology herein, what I do wish to impress upon everyone in states yet to hold their primaries, especially those in New York, is to make sure you know what the polling hours are where you live and what election laws may apply that could effect you ability to cast your vote. Call your local election boards, or look them up online, to find out where your polling place will be, how long it will be open on election day, the status of your voter registration, and if any ID will be required to vote in your state.
For voters in New York state that means that, unless you live in New York City or the counties of Erie, Putnam, Orange, Suffolk, Nassau, Rockland and Westchester (where the polls open at 6 A.M.), your polling place will not be open until NOON on Tuesday April 19th.
In addition, New Yorkers who live in counties in which the polls do not open until noon, should be prepared for possible delays due to overcrowding. Hopefully it won’t come anywhere near what we witnessed in Arizona earlier this year, but the higher the turnout, the likelier you may have to wait in line to cast your vote.
Again, my deepest and sincerest apology to all for the poor judgment I displayed in my earlier, incorrect story regarding this matter posted here on April 14th.
