Gov. Kathy Hochul said she is “appalled” by the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict mail-in voting.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that federal officials can move forward with implementing an executive order, which requires the U.S. Postal Service to only send mail ballots to voters on a list of adult U.S. citizens compiled by the Department of Homeland Security and on lists of voters eligible for mail-in ballots submitted by the states.
New York was among the states that sued to block the order. But the court found it was too early since the order hasn’t been implemented yet.
“It's made-up BS to try and scare people to cause them in advance to question the results because they know they're going to lose,” Hochul said during a Tuesday news conference in Albany. “It is a desperate, desperate, pathetic attempt to try and instill a lack of trust in the process, and we won't let them get away with that in the state of New York.”
Attorney General Letitia James said the state is reviewing its legal options. A separate lower court injunction on the order remains in place.
The high court did not rule on the merits of Trump’s order, but the legal back-and-forth is already causing confusion for voters, according to J.C. Polanco, a former New York City Board of Elections commissioner and president.
“I think that … voter education is very important here, and something that could get lost in the confusion of these injunctions and the Supreme Court decision is that nothing has changed, and it's very important for the states to educate the public and let them know what changes are being made and what stays the same,” said Polanco, who is also a professor at the University of Mount Saint Vincent.
Absentee ballot materials in New York can be mailed out as early as next month, 46 days ahead of Election Day.
