News Clips

Plaintiffs in the case include the New York Immigration Coalition, Common Cause/New York, Community Voices Heard and Citizen Action of New York. On Friday, the advocates were represented in court by attorney Cameron Kistler and Farbod Faraji.

“JCOPE appears to be willfully misinterpreting the lobbying law, which as written, clearly should not apply to Ms. Sullivan or any private individual who takes it upon herself to petition her government,” Lerner said. “This is an abuse of power that smacks of retaliation, and violates our fundamental democratic rights. A person who is not retained to advocate on behalf of another entity is not a lobbyist, by definition under the New York Lobbying Act. It’s clear that Ms. Sullivan’s passion, not a paycheck, is what’s driving her advocacy. It’s an embarrassment that JCOPE can’t tell the difference and continues to harass her rather than pursuing actual public corruption.”

“It’s a way to help voters make sense of crowded candidate fields which, luckily, we have a lot of here in New York City because of our excellent campaign-finance system,” Lerner said. “We believe that Ranked-Choice Voting, which allows you to rank up to your five preferred candidates, but to vote for only one if that’s what you prefer to do, is really well suited for our election context here in New York City.”

There are 5 consequential questions on the New York City ballot this fall, each of which poses changes to city elections or governance for "yes" or "no" responses from voters. Two leading government reform experts -- Susan Lerner of Common Cause NY and Rachel Bloom of Citizens Union -- joined the podcast to discuss each of the five ballot questions and whether voters should approve or disapprove them.

Voters will have multiple days to cast their ballots instead of just one, but Susan Lerner, of Common Cause of New York, doesn't necessarily expect higher turnout. She says that implementing the change this year is more about “the ability for people to vote at their own chosen time.” With the presidential election next year, Lerner thinks this is a good time to work out the kinks and make sure everything will be smooth sailing in 2020. “Really need to get early voting right this year so that we can improve it and have it really ready to go in 2020 when, in all honesty, the turnout will be larger,” she said

“Early voting is a game-changer for New Yorkers who no longer have to choose between getting to work on time or exercising their democratic rights," Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause/NY and the co-founder of Let NY Vote, said at a Washington Square Park rally to drum up interest. "We hope every New York voter will join us and vote early.”