Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said last week that he will issue an executive order to expand absentee voting in the state’s June 23 primary elections.
“New Yorkers shouldn’t have to choose between their health and their civic duty,” the governor, a Democrat, said on Twitter on April 8. The statement followed the April 7 elections in Wisconsin, which the state’s Republican-dominated Legislature and Supreme Court refused to postpone during the Covid-19 pandemic and provide mail ballots to voters. Many voters stood in line for hours to vote, forcing them and those working at polling stations to be in close proximity to one another.
“I’ve seen lines of people on television voting in other states,” Mr. Cuomo said last week, according to a transcript of remarks posted to his website. “This is totally nonsensical. God bless them for having such diligence for their civic duty that they would go stand on a line to vote. People shouldn’t have to make that choice, and, by executive order, all New Yorkers can vote absentee on the June 23 primaries coming up.” More than 200,000 New Yorkers had tested positive for Covid-19 infection as of Tuesday, and almost 11,000 had died.