New Yorkers Clamoring for Voting Reforms

Politics in New York have never been easy. Due to New York’s unique culture and expectations, it can be challenging to find solutions that satisfy all parties involved. However, recently citizens of the Empire State have mostly been in agreement on one specific issue: voting.

According to a recent poll conducted by political organization Unite NY and opinion survey service and political survey company John Zogby Strategies, a majority of voters are dissatisfied with New York’s current hyper-partisan political system and the voting procedures that feed a hyper-partisan attitude.

In the poll’s results, 51% of respondents felt that partisan politics in New York have become worse since 2020. Furthermore, a majority of respondents supported voting reforms such as displaying third parties on election ballots (61%), direct-to-home “no-excuse ballots” (52%), and electing gubernatorial candidates who establish open primaries (43%). Furthermore, since New York instated ranked-choice voting for its most recent election, 70% of respondents said they preferred it to New York’s previous voting system.

These results are consistent with a previous poll conducted by Unite NY and John Zogby Strategies in 2021, in which 56% of New Yorkers expressed a desire for serious changes to New York’s existing voting system. In the same poll, an overwhelming majority (76%) also agreed that open primaries should allow independent voters to have a say in elections. 68% also agreed that open primaries were good for a system that was “corrupt, stale, and hyper-partisan.”

The recent changes in voting may signal the start of widespread reforms that can help satisfy New York voters in the long run.