A historical battleground congressional district in New York is set once again for another knock-down, drag-out election season. New York’s First Congressional District, comprised of the central part and the eastern end of Long Island, includes affluent playgrounds like the Hamptons, working class neighborhoods like Smithtown and Mastic, and rural farming communities on the North Fork. It has seen its share of political swings, alternating narrow wins in presidential elections -- George W. Bush...

As long as I count the votes, what are you going to do about it?  - William M. “Boss” Tweed, c. 1871 History shows that for as long as the right to vote has existed, that right has been threatened. Thomas Nast’s caricature portraying “Boss” Tweed leaning against a pedestal on which stands “the Ballot” symbolizes a dark time in late nineteenth century America, where the “playing field” of politics was leveraged by party bosses and machine politics at the expense of the voters. Tammany Hall-era p...

When one thinks of the political “center” of America, the 11th Congressional District in New York, comprised of Staten Island and southern Brooklyn, is hardly the first image that comes to mind. After all, New York City is supposed to be one of the great bastions of the liberal-progressive movement, as reflected in the overwhelming wins of Democrats Bill de Blasio, Letitia James, and Scott Stringer in the 2013 citywide elections.But while pollsters run in droves to Iowa to get the pulse of “the ...

Talk about your new year’s resolutions!To round out 2013, the NYC Department of Investigation (DOI) released a 70-page report offered by its new Inspector General's Unit resulting from an exhaustive 6-month investigation into the operations of the much-maligned NYC Board of Elections. The report included a list of much-needed reforms that the agency encouraged the board to adopt for future elections. The findings are enough to make a reformer's head spin. In addition to DOI's substantiation of...

Talk to anyone following election reform in New York, and they’ll tell you that there’s a storm on the horizon. That storm is the volatile future of campaign finance laws and regulations in the state. In one corner, there’s the “irresistible force” that is independent expenditures. In NY Progress and Protection PAC (NYPPP) v. Walsh, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals eviscerated NY’s campaign finance spending limits, but only applied said evisceration to the one PAC named in the matter. “Few ...

When the federal government passed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and forcibly transitioned New York from what most agree were reliable lever-based voting machines to the new, unexplored frontier of electronic balloting in 2010, the New York Board of Elections gave part-time Election Day poll workers many more new and different tasks that must be completed in order to properly administer elections. New York City’s Board of Elections describes the new voting system to the public on a website s...