Do mail-in voting the right way

Article II of the New York State Constitution authorizes lawmakers to set rules for distributing and accepting mail-in ballots. But that provision also limits their use to registered voters who are either absent from their home counties on Election Day or prevented by “illness or physical disability” from showing up in person.

Two years ago, Ballot Proposal 4 was aimed at a very worthy goal. It would delete this reference to absence and illness and thus allow all eligible voters to request mail-in ballots. The proposal made sense. Voting by mail is a popular practice that helped during the COVID-19 pandemic. But in an embarrassing setback for the state’s Democratic leaders, the amendment was among three of five proposals they pushed that failed at the polls in 2021. The results weren’t all that close — 1,677,580, or 55.03% opposed, and 1,370,897, or 44.97% in favor.

So that’s that, and the question is answered, right? Wrong.

Rather than take “no” for an answer from the people they represent, both house majorities in Albany last month approved legislation to sidestep the rejection of 2021 and allow mail-in balloting for anyone who asks for it. But if they thought this legislation was a proper way to proceed, why bother with a referendum in the first place?

No simple rationale sprang forth when Republicans challenged the legislation on the floor as it advanced in the final hours of the Albany session. The sponsor, Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris, evoked a legalistic distinction between early voting and absentee voting. Whether Gov. Kathy Hochul signs or vetoes the measure, this sounds quite arguable in court.

Undoubtedly, the issue arose as a partisan dispute. In 2020, then-President Donald Trump attacked the commonsense expansion of mail-in voting as part of a plot against him. His hokum resounded locally. In 2019, three-quarters of legislative Republicans voted to put the amendment on the ballot; in 2021, more than two-thirds in the GOP opposed it. Their resistance was ill-advised. Twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia permit any qualified voter to vote absentee without offering an excuse.

The GOP and Conservative Party also led a successful charge against constitutional changes that might have helped avert the Democrats' debacle on redistricting and would have allowed so-called same-day voter registration. That shows how party-driven this conflict is, much like the current Democratic drive to move local elections into even years.

Hochul should veto this mail-in bill. To do it right, she should ask instead for two successive votes in the State Legislature — as required for constitutional amendments — so the people can reconsider the measure by November 2025.

"No excuse" voting is a good idea. There's no excuse for bringing it about the wrong way.