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In a 6-1 decision, the state Court of Appeals affirmed lower
court rulings that the Early Mail Voter Act, which was passed by
the Democratic-controlled legislature and signed by Democratic
Governor Kathy Hochul last year, did not run afoul of the state
constitution.
Republican U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, a
close ally of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump,
led the lawsuit, arguing that the constitution requires
in-person voting unless a voter is away from home on Election
Day or suffers from an illness or a disability.
"Nothing in the Constitution's text clearly establishes an
in-person voting requirement," Chief Judge Rowan Wilson wrote
for the majority.
Since Trump's false claims in 2020 that the presidential
election was rife with fraud, Republicans in numerous states
have sought to impose limits on voting, including restrictions
on mail voting.
But the national Republican Party has urged its supporters to
vote early and by mail this year, even as Trump has sometimes
undermined that message by claiming without evidence that mail
voting is susceptible to cheating.
The New York court acknowledged that the sequence of events that
led to the law was "troubling." Democratic lawmakers put a
constitutional amendment to expand mail voting on the 2021
ballot, but voters rejected the measure, which was opposed by
Republicans.
Following that election, legislators decided that no
constitutional amendment was required after all and enacted the
mail-in voting law.
"Upholding the Act in these circumstances may be seen by some as
disregarding the will of those who voted in 2021," Wilson wrote.
"But our role is to determine what our Constitution requires,
even when the resulting analysis leads to a conclusion that
appears, or is, unpopular."
In a statement, Stefanik called the ruling "disgraceful" and
added: "Today's ruling has essentially declared that for over
150 years, New York's elected officials, voters and judges
misunderstood their own state's Constitution."
Hochul called the decision "a victory for democracy & another
loss for those seeking to disenfranchise New Yorkers" in a post
on X.
(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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