The New York legislature adjourned early in the morning on Saturday, June 22. Many election law bills failed to pass. They include the National Popular Vote Plan, the “friendly ballot act” (to make the ballot easier to read), and bills to lower the number of signatures, to establish public funding for state office, to make it easier for voters to change parties, to repeal the unconstitutional law that the circulator is a resident of the district, to rotate names on the ballot in New York city primary elections, and to change the Wilson-Pakula Act.
There may be a special session later this year which could include these and other election law bills.
This is dead end that people call “incrementalism”. Last year, the “good government groups” pleaded for redistricting reform and got none, and said they were ok with that. This year, they pleaded for public campaign financing and got nothing, and they’ll be ok with this too. For FairVote the sting must be extremely sharp, since at one time or another over the last two or three years both the State Senate and State Assembly have passed the National Popular Vote Plan but it hasn’t been passed by both houses in one session! Incrementalism has surely hit bottom here in New York, with “three men in a room” still in charge of everything.