This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated October 23, 2020
The 2020 election is officially upon us. Many have already sent back absentee ballots and early voting begins Saturday, October 24 and runs through Sunday November 1.
The New York City Board of Elections website, vote.nyc, can answer any question about how, when, and where you can cast your ballot. You can apply for an absentee ballot by October 27 and if it is postmarked by Election Day, November 3, it will be counted.
I want everyone to be able to exercise their franchise and participate in our democratic process, regardless of your politics. And one particular political party feels the same.
For decades, New York was notorious for archaic voting regulations that made it harder to cast your ballot. The right to vote is the only constitutionally guaranteed right that citizens must actively request in order to be able to exercise it. For generations, we watched other states make it easier to vote, while our state created more impediments.
As soon as the state senate flipped to Democratic control in 2018, one of their first orders of business was to shepherd through reforms making it easier to vote. We see during this pandemic how important these changes are, as voting early or by absentee ballot are not merely more convenient, they are more safe.
The Republican party has been focused on making voting more difficult, aware of the fact that disenfranchising voters of color and those who live in cities helps them win races, even when most Americans do not identify as part of their party. While we have watched recent court cases in red states where the GOP tries to limit ballot dropbox locations, poll sites, or for how long mail-in ballots will be accepted, New Yorkers now know they can drop their ballot at any poll site on any day they are open and there will be ten days of in-person voting.
“The New York City Board of Elections website, vote.nyc, can answer any question about how, when, and where you can cast your ballot. You can apply for an absentee ballot by October 27 and if it is postmarked by Election Day, November 3, it will be counted.”
Regardless of you own party affiliation, or whether you have one at all, Democrats have been fighting for everyone in their districts, making it easier to vote, helping neighbors get the unemployment benefits they are due, and assisting constituents with all sorts of community concerns.
Rather than offer alternative plans or propose any solutions to the problems we face, the candidates on the right simply try to incite fear. They do not think the people they seek to represent are smart enough to see past their attempts to make us all afraid. That is obviously not the case. South Brooklynites are much smarter than that.
I wrote last week about how the new democratic legislature has enacted an historic amount of common sense laws that help all New Yorkers, focusing on how Senator Andrew Gounardes has not only worked with his colleagues to pass these bills, but how he has proposed so much legislation himself that has been signed by the Governor.
During this campaign, fearmongers have tried to create an absurd caricature of Gounardes as someone who is attacking the civil servants in uniform who serve our communities. Meanwhile, Gounardes has been hard at work getting laws passed that gave 9/11 first responders the unlimited sick time they deserve, increasing the time they have to seek benefits, and racking up endorsements from them.
As a billionaire is spending large sums of money on negative advertising against him these past few weeks, Gounardes has went about his business fighting for us, proposing legislation to avert Mayor de Blasio’s proposed layoffs of tens of thousands of city workers and another bill to slash the costs of PPE for small businesses during the pandemic.
Continuing this progress is why we need to reelect Assemblymember Mathylde Frontus, who has worked to get legislation passed that requires public meetings and hearings to be accessible online, and to send Brandon Patterson to Albany, so residents will have someone in the majority representing them who will fight to bring back resources to the families and community members of assembly district 64.
When you cast your vote this year, keep in mind those who have worked to make it easier for you to cast that ballot during this difficult time and who have fought for so much more these past two years.
