News Clips

The case, which is led by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Common Cause New York, together with pro bono law firm Dechert LLP and LatinoJustice PRLDEF, is being heard at a federal courthouse in Manhattan by Judge Allison J. Nathan of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

“Voters who have registered, who have voted previously should not be removed from the voter rolls simply because something has happened to a piece of mail,” said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York. “The federal statute really requires more time before somebody can be removed from the active rolls,” she added.

"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," said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause/NY and co-founder of Let NY Vote.

The council in April invited Susan Lerner, of the New York advocacy group Common Cause, to discuss the commission. Lerner said the current practice of having council members draw their own districts is a blatant conflict of interest.

“Just think if we had ranked choice voting for the special election for public advocate where we had 17 people running. It would have been easier for the voted to make sense of that crowded field,” said Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause New York.

The commission has until Dec. 1 to announce rules that will become law unless lawmakers hold a rare end-of-year special session to reject them. It’s a looming timeline for such a weighty subject, according to the letter from advocacy groups, which also include Reinvent Albany, Common Cause New York and the Brennan Center for Justice. “You have a challenging task crafting a public financing system, made even more challenging by your lack of staff support and getting it completed in the 37 working days left,” reads the letter.