New York’s top court affirmed Tuesday that a measure expanding access to absentee voting in the state is constitutional, rejecting a lawsuit led by House GOP Chair Elise Stefanik (N.Y.).
The New York Court of Appeals ruled 6-1 that New York’s Early Mail Voter Act, which allows registered voters to submit ballots early by mail in any election where they are eligible to vote, can stand. The measure was signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) last year.
“Our task is to rigorously analyze the constitutional text and history to determine if New York’s Early Mail Voter Act is unconstitutional,” Chief Judge Rowan Wilson wrote for the majority. “We now hold that it is not.”
Wilson acknowledged the “difficult” question raised by the Republican-led lawsuit, noting that though the New York Constitution does not contain language explicitly requiring in-person voting, the state’s legislative and executive branches “have often proceeded as if our Constitution requires as such.”
The chief judge also recognized that a 2021 proposed amendment to codify absentee voting failed at the ballot box. Some 55 percent of voters turned down the measure at the time.
“We take seriously both the legislature’s position in 2021 and the voters’ rejection of the proposed constitutional amendment,” Wilson wrote. “At the same time, we may not simply defer to the legislature’s assumptions about what the Constitution requires.”
Stefanik and a slew of Republican groups challenged the measure shortly after it was signed into law last year in September.
In a statement, Stefanik said the state’s high court “disgracefully claims to know the constitutional framers’ intent more than they did,” disregarding interpretation norms.
“New York’s court system is so corrupt and disgraceful that today’s ruling has essentially declared that for over 150 years, New York’s elected officials, voters, and judges misunderstood their own state’s Constitution, and that in-person voting was never required outside the current legal absentee process,” Stefanik said, adding that the “only path forward to Save New York” is to vote the state’s Democrats out of office.
The Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, Conservative Party of New York State and New York Republican State Committee challenged the law alongside Stefanik.
New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), whose office defended the measure, called voting a “beautiful celebration of patriotism and civic responsibility” and suggested that the government should make it easier to vote, not harder.
“While some want to put up roadblocks and stifle New Yorkers’ ability to exercise their Constitutional right to vote, I will always stand up and protect this basic, yet essential, freedom,” James said.
Aria Branch, an Elias Law Group lawyer who represented the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and several Democratic lawmakers, said in a statement that the decision is a win for New York voters who can now cast ballots by mail “without having to provide an excuse.” Branch called the court’s ruling a “pro-democracy decision.”
—Updated at 4:02 p.m.