Election Day is here and voters are filling polling places across the country.
Throughout the presidential campaign, former President Donald Trump has cast doubt on the fairness of the election as the Republican seeks a return to the White House against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
Meantime, state election officials across the country are reassuring the public that the election is secure.
In a time of bitter political division, Susan Lerner, Executive Director of non-partisan good government organization Common Cause New York, says the state has systems in place to ensure that elections are carried out fairly...
So, New York law is very, very detailed, as is the law in every other state. There are significant procedures with checks and balances every step along the way where a Democratic and a Republican party representative are checking every step of our elections to be sure that the law is followed, and our election law is very careful. And our experience is that our election administrators and the watchers from both sides of the aisle and from all of the candidates take care that the law is followed and that the procedures are obeyed, and that our elections go through smoothly and fairly.
Have local boards of elections, or the state of New York, made any improvements over the last four years, or maybe in recent years, that Common Cause is supportive of when it comes to election security?
Well, I know that the local boards work with the state board and the state board works with the federal authorities. We don't have all of the details regarding the extensive safeguards that have been made for election security, and that's appropriate. We shouldn’t know the details. It's our election administrators who need to know the details and follow the directions of the federal and local security experts.
Now, I wanted to ask you about Proposition One on the statewide ballot, the Equal Rights Amendment. Common Cause has taken issue with the language of Prop One. How do you feel about the language as it is on the ballot as voters are going to the polls today?
Well, the language is very disappointing. We at Common Cause are strong advocates for what's called the Plain Language Law, and that's now a part of New York State law, which requires that the language that appears on the ballot should be no more complicated than requiring an eighth grade reading level. The New York State Board of Elections ignored that requirement, and what's on the ballot requires a college education, and even with a college education, it's full of legalese and confusing, so it's very disappointing and simply wrong that the Board of Elections has not followed the law and therefore it's not clear to voters, which it should be, what is really up with Prop One.
And the big question there is abortion. The ballot language uses the term “pregnancy outcomes.” Meantime, opponents of the amendment have said, you know, if it were approved by voters, that men would be able to compete in women's sports. Have there been a lot of false claims with regards to Prop One, or is Prop One simply too vague and it leaves a lot of room for interpretation and possible court battles in the future?
Well, number one, there have been a huge number, a really startling number of misrepresentations about what Prop One does or doesn't do. The clearest explanation I've seen is actually provided by the lawyers in New York City, the New York City Bar Association, and the website is NYCbar.org has a clear explanation of what Prop One will do and what Prop One won't do, and I recommend, your listeners, that they check that out, because it dispels the tremendous amount of deliberate disinformation that's been disseminated about Prop One.
Has the advent of artificial intelligence technology made things more complicated for this election year. Do voters have to worry about how AI might be perhaps misrepresenting the truth in campaign mailers or anything else on this Election Day?
Well, you know, there have been various efforts legally to require that advertisements that are created by artificial intelligence have to be identified as having been generated by artificial intelligence. But again, I caution people, if it's a very sensational accusation, if it deals with election administration, do your own research. Be skeptical. Use your good common sense. And for details about how our elections are conducted, where and when, the official source, which is the board of elections, is the most reliable source of information. And if you've got doubts about details regarding the election that's going on today, you can always call the 1-866-OUR-VOTE hotline and get an answer to your questions regarding election procedure and what your rights are.
Now, I know you may not be able to comment on the specifics of what's happening in Pennsylvania being as you're based in New York, but a judge has let Elon Musk's million dollar a day sweepstakes to encourage voters to turn out stand. Now this raises the question, I think, you know, does New York need any protections in your mind against someone effectively incentivizing people to vote with money, whether it be a sweepstakes or otherwise?
Well, you know, bribery to vote, trying to buy someone's vote or provide them with some incentive other than a minimal, you know, water or some food while on line, is illegal under New York law. What's really sad about the Pennsylvania situation, which I can't comment on the specifics of Pennsylvania law, but it appears, in defending against the lawsuit that the lawyers for Musk said, “Oh, it's not really a sweepstake. We pick the winner deliberately,” and it's really, really not a positive situation when there are these sorts of very bold falsities, just out and out, lies that are being disseminated to the public. And so again, we need to use our common sense. We need to be skeptical of the sorts of representations that are either too good to be true or sensational.
Now, like 2020, we may not know the results of the presidential election tonight, but in that sort of interim before all of the votes are tabulated and all the results are finalized. What do you want to see state governments do to reaffirm to the people that the elections are fair and accurate?
Well, I think what they're doing is what they should be doing, which is really letting people know democracy takes some time. We have millions and millions of votes which are counts in which are cast in this state. Thank goodness. We want people to come out and vote. But that means that the procedures to ensure that vote by mail ballots, absentee ballots, affidavit ballots, which might not be received until after the election, are handled correctly that it takes time to receive the ballots to come in by mail, takes time to check that they are cast by eligible voters and determine whether the voters made a mistake, like failing to include the date on the affirmation envelope, things that can be cured. So what listeners need to know is that the appropriate procedures are being followed, we’ll have unofficial results on election night, but that's what they are. They're unofficial results that indicate the votes that have been cast by the end of election night, which is through nine o'clock this evening. It doesn't include all of the votes that could come in by mail or affidavit ballots, which are ballots that are cast at the polling place where there's some question about eligibility. So again, the procedures are in place. Our election law is very detailed. Democrats and Republicans collaborate together to check all of these details and be sure that the vote is fair and accurately counted.
Susan Lerner of common cause New York, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it.
Thank you. Take care now.
