More than just elections: 5 legislative proposals New Yorkers will see on their ballot papers in November

On November 2, New Yorkers won't just be elect a new mayor and the City Council, but will also amend New York State law. Voters will have to decide on five proposed changes to the state constitution. The City.

These include questions about the future of political representation in Albany, protecting the environment, simplifying voter registration and absentee voting, and how New York's civil courts function.

The full text of the five sentences is posted on the website of the Election Commission and in non-profit political encyclopedia Ballotpedia... But voters who are not political scholars may need a little context.

How proposals to change legislation end up on the ballot papers

Unlike California, where citizens can initiate changes to state law, New York is one of 24 regions in the United States where such proposals must come only from legislators, and not directly from the people.

Proposition 1: polling station boundaries

The first proposal for amendments to the legislation is several issues combined into one. All of them relate to the establishment of the boundaries of electoral districts.

Constituency reallocation is the process of changing state constituency boundaries for elections to the United States Congress and New York State legislatures. The local authorities carry out it on the basis of the new population, obtained as a result of the census carried out once every decade. This is a complex and important process that will shape political representation at all levels over the next decade.

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Voters in New York are being asked to approve several changes to the process of reallocating constituencies. The proposal contains more than a dozen separate amendments to the Constitution. But voters must vote for them in a package - at once "for" or "against" all together. Here are the main proposed changes:

• Limit the number of state senators to 63.
• When redistributing districts, prisoners should be referred to the address where they lived before imprisonment, and not to the place of detention.
• Increase the time frame when plans for redistribution of districts are to be submitted to the legislature.
• Change the total number of votes required to pass plans for redistributing constituencies when one political party controls both houses of the state legislature.

Proponents say the proposal is fundamental to ensuring that the electoral system operates in a more democratic and accurate manner. Opponents, especially those from the Republican Party, say such a measure is an attempt by Democrats to cheat and leave the political minority (in New York, Republicans) less power. Limiting the number of state senators will negatively affect Republicans, since some enclaves of their supporters will be able to be attributed by Democrats to districts with a total Democratic majority.

The prisoner measure will prohibit what is called “prison fraud”. This is the name of the counting of prisoners where they are, and not where they lived before the prison.

This measure will generally increase the population of southern counties, especially in New York City. It will lead to population decline in upstate counties, where many of the state's prisons are located.

Suggestion 2: environmental rights

The second measure will add a broad new right to the State Constitution: “Everyone has the right to clean air and water and a healthy environment.”

Sounds simple? And so it was conceived. The environmentalists who advocated this measure wanted the wording to be generic. It should push state officials to "ensure the highest level of environmental recognition and protection." Similar amendments have already been made to the laws of Pennsylvania and Montana since the 1970s.

However, the simplicity of the wording worries many politicians and lawyers. They say that such an innovation in the laws will cause a lot of unnecessary lawsuits.

Michael Jaimo, director of the Northeast Region of the American Petroleum Institute, warned that the way the regulation is written could lead to extensive and costly litigation. Overly broad wording will inevitably be forced upon the courts to interpret the new amendment, which takes time and resources.

Proposals 3 and 4: elections and voting

The third and fourth amendments aim to change the state's voting rules to make it easier to access polling stations.

Proposition 3 proposes to remove the current rule that you must register to vote at least 10 days before Election Day in New York. This will allow voters to register to vote before election day.

Proposition 4 calls for the abolition of a state rule that voters must have a valid reason to vote by absentee ballot. If the proposal is approved, then New York will be able to make absentee ballot one of the options of expression of will, and there will be no need for a valid reason to apply it.

Sentence 5: limit for claims in civil courts

Currently, only cases with claims of less than $ 25 can be tried in New York Civil Court. Proposition 000 proposes raising this limit to $ 5.

Why is this done? State Senator Luis Sepúlveda, the author of the bill, referred to the need to reduce the number of cases in the judicial system. This is especially necessary in the State Supreme Court, which currently accepts any cases involving claims over $ 25.

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If voters pass Proposition 5, this will be the first time that jurisdiction to hear claims in a Civil Court has been changed since 1983.

What happens to the proposal after the vote

New York voters have the final say on legislative action. If approved, they will enter into force on January 1, 2022.

The process of making amendments to the state constitution is the voter. Thus, voters essentially act as a signature of the governor or a veto.

If voters reject the measure, then it is canceled. It will have to be reintroduced and adopted by the Legislature in order for it to appear on future ballot papers for voter approval.