Are you happy with New York’s leadership?

Voting is so easy. There used to be a single Election Day. Since 1845, that voting day was on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. If you considered voting an important civic duty, you went to your polling place and pulled the levers.
We still have an official Election Day, Nov. 8 this year, but in New York state, early voting begins on Saturday and ends Nov. 6. That’s nine days of early voting and a 10th day on Nov. 8.
Couldn’t be easier to vote, right? But less than 60 percent of the eligible population voted in the five presidential elections between 2000 and 2016. Sixty-seven percent of eligible citizens voted in the 2020 presidential election. Kimberly Gonzales, in City & State New York, wrote that “New York’s estimated voter turnout for 2020 was 65.3 percent of eligible voters, ranking New York 30th out of 50 states for voter turnout. … In 2016, New York ranked 39th in voter turnout, when it was 57.2 percent.”
In non-presidential years like this one, the national rates of participation range from 37 percent in 2014 to a high of 50 percent in 2018. In off-year elections in New York state from 2002 to 2018, an average of only 36.6 percent of those who could vote did so. Some blame low voter turnout on how hard we make it to register to vote, as though allowing for same-day registration would get more people to head to the polls. Imagine! Requiring New Yorkers to register to vote ahead of time by presenting qualifying documents (a driver’s license or other ID) and then voting a few weeks later! Oh, the burden! Oh, the suffering!
I am of two minds on voter turnout. On one hand, if 80 to 90 percent of qualified voters went to the polls, at least the winners and losers could say the people have spoken. The way it is now, people get elected via the party primary system and general elections with embarrassingly few votes.

Then again, statewide, almost 50 percent of New York’s 12.9 million registered voters are Democrats, and only 22 percent are Republicans. There are more registered Independents in the state than members of the GOP. So getting more people out to vote in New York doesn’t mean a more balanced political landscape in Albany, and of course not in New York City, where most of the partisan campaign funding — the lifeblood of politicians’ policy views — comes from.
Maybe I’m of three minds. I wish more citizens thought more about their votes vis a vis their quality of life, the cost of necessary things, their personal safety, the quality and cost of their children’s education, property crime, infrastructure disrepair, and a host of other concerns.
Nineteen of New York’s 27 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are occupied by Democrats. Our two senators are Democrats. The Assembly has had a Democratic majority every year since 1992. Democrats have controlled the State Senate since 2019. There’s been a Democrat in the governor’s mansion since 2007.
What are the top five accomplishments this lopsided majority in Albany has delivered? Bail reform? Ha! Getting the demonstrably mentally ill off the streets? Solving the homelessness crisis? Lower taxes? Instead of naming a few things only the left consider achievements, what are the actions state elected officials have taken that the vast majority of New Yorkers would applaud? Or are the Democrats interested only in satisfying their liberal lobbyists and contributors, as opposed to the general welfare? That’s the way it feels.
With all that Democratic control of legislation, taxation, education, public safety and administration, are you happy with how life is in New York? Happy with your tax rates? Happy with how police are treated? Are the residents of New York City happy with the education their children are getting? Do you want to ride the LIRR into Manhattan, and ride the subway to a show or restaurant? Do you feel that vicious thugs are treated with more respect than the victims of their criminal acts? Are you sick of politicians showing up at autumn street fairs before elections but acting like “Markles” (my new name for obnoxiously privileged, entitled, aloof snobs) the rest of their terms?
I remember a time when incumbents had to earn votes, had to justify their re-election by accomplishing things for the good and welfare of us all. Let’s vote more thoughtfully, vote for more balance in Albany, and send the politicians who’ve brought us to where we are now packing.

John O’Connell is a former executive editor of the Herald Community Newspapers. Comments? oconnell11001@yahoo.com.