New York Trial To Determine Fate of Ban on Handing Voters Food and Water

[RandySF]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today marks the beginning of a trial that will determine the fate of New York’s ban on passing out food and water to voters waiting in long lines.

New York’s ban on handing out food and water — often referred to as line-warming — has long been the subject of ridicule for the otherwise progressive state. The voter suppression law, which prohibits nonpartisan organizations from giving out food and water to voters waiting in long lines, is the subject of a years-long lawsuit brought by the Brooklyn Branch of the NAACP. In the aftermath of the 2020 election, Republican legislators in Georgia and Florida passed similar voter suppression laws, which were met with public outcry and lawsuits.

This 2021 lawsuit argues that the New York law violates both the First and 14th Amendments. The Brooklyn NAACP points out “long wait times affect all New Yorkers, but poor and minority voters are disproportionately affected as they routinely wait in lines three to four times longer than voters in more affluent or majority-white communities.” The trial will focus on if New York’s prohibition of passing food and water out to voters waiting in line to vote is unconstitutional.

New York Sen. Zellnor Myrie (D) sponsored a bill to allow for line-warming activities, but it is currently stalled in the New York Assembly. Without legislative action to repeal this voter suppression law, this lawsuit may be the best chance at repealing this suppressive law.





https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/new-york-trial-to-determine-fate-of-ban-on-handing-voters-food-and-water/

[Historic NY]

1. Seems kind of strange since we now have early voting and mail in ballots.

The only time I've ever stood on a line for more than 2hrs was when the early voting experiment was first started and there was a limited amount of polling locations.

[Johnny2X2X]

5. Minority communities in red states

If you live in a state like Georgia, Alabama, or Tennessee and you live in a community that is majority black, you could wait in line for 12 hours. The Republicans in these states have closed polling stations in heavy democratic areas while people living in rural deep red places have convenient polling stations that never have a line.

There are hundreds of thousands maybe even millions of people in cities in this country that don't vote because when they get to their location there's too long a wait, or when they get in line they wait for several hours and eventually give up.

[MichMan]

7. The OP is about long lines in New York state

Not a red state

[MichMan]

2. Why not just fix it so people don't have to wait in lines so long?

[LeftInTX]

3. Easier said than done...Voters tends to all show up at once and at the same location

We have plenty of voting sites (we have county wide voting on election day . We have 280 sites today. I million voters), over 30 sites during early voting, but people tend to wait until the last minute. They see the line and they get in. They don't want to go elsewhere. It's kinda weird.

Some sites will only get 2 voters today. Other sites will get up to a 1,000. The school down the road from the 1,000 voters doesn't get traffic.
Voters can vote anywhere.

Everyone waited to vote in this primary.

[MichMan]

4. Why is it different in more affluent or white areas?

The Brooklyn NAACP points out “long wait times affect all New Yorkers, but poor and minority voters are disproportionately affected as they routinely wait in lines three to four times longer than voters in more affluent or majority-white communities.”

[LeftInTX]

6. Around here, lines tend to be longer in more affluent areas

However, elections depts can't always anticipate turnout. My friend ran out if ballots in a ho-hum election, because at the last minute a bunch of teachers voted.

In 2022, one university had huge lines because someone took hundreds of unregistered voters to the polls. No one can anticipate 100s of unregister voters. They take a very long time to process (They were college students and were registered on other counties or states) A youth voter group decided just to round up an entire dorm.

[Historic NY]

9. The point is NY did fix it.

https://elections.ny.gov/registration-and-voting-deadlines]

[orthoclad]

8. Jelly bean contest

Hold up a jar with 3 jelly beans in it, and hand out food and water as "prizes" for guessing right.

Harks back to making people guess the count of a full jar as a voting ability (aka suppression) test.

Will they ban guessing games?