BUFFALO, N.Y. — 2 On Your Side has reminded you to flip over your ballot whether you early vote or go to the polls on Tuesday. That's because there are some statewide proposals for you to decide on.
Two of them are aimed at making it easier to vote. And you may have seen ads -- including on 2 On Your Side -- claiming that if the ballot measures pass, we're in danger of a lot more voter fraud.
We are focusing on the two ballot measures that have to do with the state's voting laws. Ballot Proposal 3, if approved, would eliminate the state's ten-day advance voter registration requirement. Ballot Proposal 4, if approved, would authorize no excuse absentee ballot voting.
The New York State GOP and Conservative Party are campaigning against the approval of those proposals. The state's Republican party has taken its Just Say No tour on the road telling voters to vote no on all five of this year's statewide ballot proposals.
You may have seen ads and social media posts telling people to vote no on proposals 1, 3 and 4. Several of those posts claim approval of measure 3 is an "invitation to voter fraud" and the New York State GOP tweeted they're "an assault on election integrity."
Let's Verify.
If ballot proposals 3 and 4 pass, will there be an invitation to voter fraud?
Our sources are two election administration experts. Jacob Neiheisel is an associate professor of political science at the University at Buffalo. Patrick Berry is an attorney with the Brennan Center's Democracy Program focusing on voting rights restoration. The Brennan Center is a nonpartisan law and policy institute at NYU Law.
"Twenty states and D.C. currently have some form of same day registration, and some of those jurisdictions have had it for decades, and voter fraud hasn't been an issue in any of those states, and it won't be an issue in New York because there are safeguards that can be put into place to ensure that only eligible voters can get registered and vote using same day registration," says Berry.
"There is no solid evidence that same day registration or Election Day registration is in any way related to up ticks in fraud," says Neiheisel.
And when it comes to Proposal 4, the majority of states already have some form of no excuse absentee voting.
"Since 2000, roughly 250 million mail ballots have been cast in the United States, and because of safeguards that have been adopted by states to ensure that voting by mail is secure, mail voting fraud has remained incredibly rare," says Berry.
"We tend to think of places that are all mail elections, like exist in Oregon, as actually running a fairly tight ship. So, no, there's no evidence that it's related to voter fraud or malfeasance in any way," says Neiheisel.
So we can verify that, according to our experts, in the dozens of other states where voting laws like these already exist, it has not lead to more cases of fraud.
And a reminder, early voting ends Sunday, mail-in ballots have to be postmarked by Tuesday, and Tuesday is Election Day.
We put together a ballot proposal guide. It breaks down all five statewide proposals and what they would mean for state law if they pass.