By Jeff Wice, Alexis Marking & Michael Athy
This week: N.Y.C. Mayoral Race & Party Labels Case Moves Forward, N.Y.C. Non-citizen Voting Rejected by Court of Appeals; Automatic Voter Registration Regulations Released; VRA Preclearance Activity; Supreme Court Considers Louisiana Racial Gerrymandering
ELECTION LAW
Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn): Walden v. Kosinski et al. (Mayoral Race)
On March 14th, a hearing on New York City mayoral candidate Jim Walden’s motion for a preliminary injunction was held. At the hearing, the State Board of Elections stated the following: (1) although the State BOE has a position on whether N.Y. Elec. Law § 2-124, the Provision for Party Names and Emblems (the “Party Names Provision”), applies to independent bodies, it will not impose its position on the City BOE; (2) the State BOE will not seek to enforce this provision against Walden; and (3) the State BOE has no involvement in printing the N.Y.C. mayoral election ballots and, “thus, cannot subsequently exclude Walden from the ballot after the City BOE accepts his independent nominating petition.”
At the time of this hearing, the City BOE still had not taken a position. The City BOE was directed to file a letter by March 17th to inform the Court of its position regarding the enforcement of the Party Names Provision against Walden. As stated by the Court, “To the extent that the City BOE, like the State BOE, determines that it does not intend to seek to enforce the Party Names Provision against Plaintiff, as an independent body, it must so state.” On March 18th, counsel for the city Board of Elections filed a letter with the court indicating that the board lacks the authority to take any position on the constitutionality of the state law and that it takes no position with regard to the clams in this case.
Court of Appeals: Fosella v. Adams: New York City Non-Citizen Voting Rejected
In a 6-1 ruling, the New York Court of Appeals has decided that “the New York Constitution as it stands today draws a firm line restricting voting to citizens.” The Court further stated, “We hold that Article II, Section 1 of our Constitution limits voting to citizens, and affirm on that ground.”
This appeal to the Court was requested by the New York City Council—which approved Local Law No. 11 (2022)—after an appellate court ruled in February 2024 that the law violated the New York State Constitution and Municipal Home Law. Oral arguments were heard by the Court of Appeals on February 11, 2025. Oral arguments focused on two issues: what exactly qualifies an individual as a “citizen,” and that New York City officials “did not hold a referendum to facilitate a home-rule law that aims to allow non-U.S. citizens to vote in municipal elections.”
Local Law No. 11 (2022) would have authorized certain non-citizens to vote in local elections, including more than 800,000 green card holders and other residents with federal work authorization. Under this law, individuals could vote for mayor, borough president, comptroller, public advocate, and council members in municipal elections. New York City never actually implemented this 2022 law. As a result of this ruling, the law will not go into effect.
ELECTION LAW
Automatic Voter Registration Rules Released for Review
It has been a long and difficult road for automatic voter registration in New York. In 2020, then-Governor Andrew Cuomo approved a law that would automatically register New York residents to vote when they get a driver’s license or register to receive benefits from the state. Funding for the system’s implementation was temporarily frozen in 2020 due to the pandemic and resources were diverted to support the extensive mail-in voting needed that year. Finally, after a series of delays the state government appears poised to implement automatic voter registration.
Proposed regulations were recently released by the State Board of Elections and are subject to public comment through May 5th, 2025. If the proposed regulations are approved, eligible New York residents will have their information transmitted from certain state agencies to the state Board of Elections when they take a specific action. These actions include whenever anyone submits an application for services at the agency, files a change of address form or files a change of name form. Agencies would also fold a voter registration form into their application form for their services. This would allow a New York resident to easily register to vote when routinely applying for government services.
After the voter registration applications are filed the eligibility of the applicant is verified by election officials. If an applicant’s signature does not match what the election official has on file, the application would still be accepted unless there was another reason to reject it. If there is no signature at all, the applicant would have to add one at their local Board of Elections or they would have to vote via an affidavit ballot on Election Day.
Originally, the automatic voter registration was supposed to only apply to forms filed with the state Department of Motor Vehicles. However, several more agencies are to begin participating in the program including the Department of Health, the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, the Department of Labor, and the Office of Adult Career and Continuing Education Services. Registrants under Medicaid would also be eligible for the program.
Additionally, Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris has introduced legislation that would change how voters would be able to opt out of this new system. Instead of being able to opt out at the point of service, residents would now receive a letter in the mail allowing them to opt out after the fact. The proposal has passed the Senate but so far does not have any sponsors in the Assembly.
N.Y. STATE VOTING RIGHTS ACT
Attorney General Receives Preclearance Submissions
The Attorney General’s Civil Rights Bureau received preclearance submissions from the N.Y.C. Board of Elections, the Nassau County Board of Elections, and the Onondaga County Board of Elections. All relate to early voting or election day poll site issues. The submissions can be accessed by visiting this link: https://oagcloud.ag.ny.gov/s/iGGaDQy9E8Xty6K Enter the password: Preclearance2025!
CENSUS
April 1st N.Y.C. Census 2030 Conference
New York City activists can register now for a conference focused on organizing for the 2030 Decennial Census. The event will be held at New York Law School on Tuesday, April 1st from 9:00 AM to Noon. Organizers include New York City Council Member Julie Menin (who directed N.Y.C.’s 2020 census effort), the N.Y.C. Central Labor Council, and the N.Y. Elections, Census & Redistricting Institute. Register here: https://nyls.wufoo.com/forms/q19nfln10ghm3va/
AROUND THE NATION
LOUISIANA: Today, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to consider whether to leave Louisiana’s congressional map in place.
This case centers on Louisiana’s response to a federal district court’s ruling in 2022, which stated that Louisiana was likely violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by only having one majority-Black district. The case went to the Supreme Court and was sent back to the lower court, where the court held that Louisiana was required to redraw the map by January 2024 or otherwise go to trial. The state believed that a trial would result in the court imposing its own map, so the Louisiana Legislature went into a special session and drew a new map that included a second majority-Black district.
However, after the map was signed into law, a group of “non-African Americans” (as they identified themselves), sued Louisiana and alleged that the new map was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. A three-judge panel in the Western Louisiana District Court ruled in favor and blocked the new map from being used. Louisiana appealed and received an emergency stay from the Supreme Court in May 2024 to block the lower court’s injunction.
This case has now returned to the Supreme Court. The question is whether the three-judge court erred in enjoining Louisiana’s map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Supreme Court precedent provides states with “breathing room” to redraw voting districts with racial communities in mind when there is a “good reason” for the state to believe they must do so to comply with the VRA’s voting protections. Here, Louisiana argues that it was trapped between contrary court orders due to the three-judge court, which undermined its ability to create a compliant map.
A decision from the U.S. Supreme Court is expected by the end of June.
INSTITUTE RESOURCES
The New York Elections, Census and Redistricting Institute has archived many resources for the public to view on our Digital Commons Page.
Our Redistricting Resources page contains resources on the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act. You can access the page
here: https://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/redistricting_resources/
Archived Updates can be accessed
here: https://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/redistricting_roundtable_updates/
Please share this weekly update with your colleagues. To be added to the mailing list, please contact Jeffrey.wice@nyls.edu
The N.Y. Elections, Census & Redistricting Institute is supported by grants from the New York Community Trust, New York Census Equity Fund and the New York City Council. This report was prepared by Jeff Wice, Alexis Marking & Michael Athy.