News Clips

“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. We hope every New York voter will join us and vote early,” said Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause/NY.

“What we see in the current system is that politicians are advised to dig down into their base of existing supporters and don’t worry about voters in other communities who didn’t vote for you last time,” said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York, a good-government group. “With ranked-choice voting, candidates are unlikely to be successful if they only speak to their base, because that slice of voters won’t be enough.”

Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, a good-government group, said Mr. King’s conduct should be examined by criminal authorities. “I hope there would an independent investigation by criminal authorities to determine whether there was criminal activity or not,” Ms. Lerner said, adding that Mr. King’s conduct justified expulsion from the City Council. “The Council does not believe he has the ability to behave appropriately, so to ask the taxpayers to pay for a babysitter is inappropriate,” Ms. Lerner continued. “If I as a taxpayer would pay for anything, it’s a new election.”

State lawmakers enacted early voting in their last legislative session, delivering a victory to open-government advocates such as Common Cause Executive Director Susan Lerner, who have long pushed for the change... The new system will help election officials work out bugs and help people with rigid schedules, Ms. Lerner said. “It takes the stress off Election Day,” she added.

Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Mayor Bill de Blasio have called on King to resign while Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer and Susan Lerner, head of good government group Common Cause, have called on the body to go further and expel King.

“[It] makes our elections more fair. It helps voters hold politicians accountable to all communities, and it saves taxpayers money and voters time,” said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York, a nonpartisan grassroots organization that led the push to get RCV on New York City’s ballot.