Good Question: Is NY moving to no-excuse absentee voting?

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — One of the biggest changes this year is New York state allowing every registered voter to cast an absentee ballot. The driving force for that was of course the COVID-19 outbreak.

What happens now, after this presidential election? Will voting absentee still be that easy? The pandemic isn’t going away anytime soon.

As part of sweeping voting reform in Albany and a law the governor signed earlier this year, the absentee exemption for COVID-19 and concerns about spreading the disease also applies to all elections through 2021 in New York state.

You’ll go through this process again to cast absentee votes next year.

There’s a push in Albany to expand ballot rules to make what’s called no-excuse absentee voting permanent. To do that, you have to change the state’s constitution.

The measure made it through once this year. It has to pass again in the very next term coming up before going up for a statewide vote in 2021.

The earliest no-excuse voting could start in New York state is January 2022.

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