Acknowledging election complications caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed a slate of reforms to ease the voting process Monday.
As part of his 2021 State of the State agenda, Cuomo wants to extend the early voting period, make voting by mail more accessible and speed up the ballot counting process. These reforms would build on election changes the state has made in recent years.
In the aftermath of the unprecedented 2020 election, many states are considering changes to their voting systems as legislative sessions begin. And the Democratic-controlled Legislature in Albany will almost certainly be supportive of expanding access to the ballot box for New York's 13.6 million voters.
"Our election system, on which our democracy is built, has, and continues to be, under attack by those seeking to undermine the founding principles of our nation and we must not only protect it, but ensure it can be accessed by all," Cuomo said in his announcement.
Last year, Cuomo issued an executive order temporarily designating fear of Covid-19 infection to be a valid excuse to vote by mail. As a result, 2.5 million New Yorkers took advantage of that option. The governor is now calling on state legislators to put a no-excuse absentee voting amendment on the ballot for voters to decide next fall. Cuomo's other proposals only require approval by the Legislature.
In addition to expanding who can vote by mail, Cuomo also wants to give New Yorkers more time to request an absentee ballot. Currently, voters cannot request a mail ballot more than a month prior to Election Day, putting pressure on election administrators to fulfill requests in a short amount of time. Cuomo plans to advance legislation allowing voters to request mail ballots 45 days ahead of an election.
The surge in mail voting last year caused the processing and counting of mail ballots to take much longer than usual, particularly in New York. To expedite that process in the future, Cuomo is proposing legislation to allow election administrators to begin processing mail ballots as soon as they are received, so they can then be quickly tabulated on Election Day. The current system allows ballots to be processed within two weeks of a general election and eight days of a primary.
Cuomo's plans also include a provision to build on early in-person voting access. Since more than 2.5 million Empire State voters cast their ballot early in the presidential election — the first major contest in New York to allow early voting — Cuomo wants to extend early voting by 3 hours on weekends and on at least three weekdays during the state's 10-day early voting period.
"While we have already made some progress in modernizing New York's election system, there is much left to do and this historic package of election reforms will be critical in strengthening how elections are run and ensuring all New Yorkers are able to exercise this fundamental right," Cuomo said.
Meanwhile, in neighboring New Jersey, Republican lawmakers are pushing legislation aimed at preventing fraudulent absentee voting — even though there was no significant evidence of such fraud in the 2020 election. The proposed measures would suspend automatic voter registration, mark voters with undeliverable addresses as inactive, establish a voter fraud task force and require reports of vote-by-mail irregularities.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a“ Steel Across America” event ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks on the Ellipse near the White House on Sept. 8, 2026 in Washington, D.C. President Trump welcomed 9/ 11 first responders to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’ s“ Steel Across America” event featuring a 16,900- pound, 21- foot steel beam recovered.
For Trump, even 9/11 is an opportunity
There was a reason organizers of the 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan told President Trump he could not speak at this year’s memorial service.
A good one, it turns out.
Because in a speech he gave on Tuesday in Washington, he did exactly what they were presumably worried about — he made it about himself.
According to The New York Times, Trump had wanted a speaking role at the service, but the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, which oversees the site, said no, as they’ve maintained for the past decade-plus that the venue and event should be nonpartisan.
Trump has long used awful tragedies to either puff himself up, trash political opponents, or sell lies to the American people.
He blamed a deadly plane crash at Washington National Airport last year on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. He blamed Puerto Ricans for the devastation they endured after Hurricane Maria in 2017. He reportedly considered withholding disaster relief after the California wildfires based on the way affected regions voted. In an interview on Fox News meant to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, he used the occasion to slam former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi…with graves of the dead behind him.
And now, as we approach the 25th anniversary of what many New Yorkers consider the darkest day in modern history, Trump has done it again.
He told a rambling, nonsensical story — one he’s told before — about going to Ground Zero just after terrorists flew two commercial jets into the twin towers. In the story, which no one has been able to verify, despite multiple attempts, he says firefighters had to carry him out of One Liberty Plaza, also known as the U.S. Steel Building, because they thought it was about to collapse.
As CNN fact checker Daniel Dale notes, there’s no evidence Trump went into this building, especially at a time when NYPD and NYFD had locked down the area. There’s no evidence that building was collapsing — in fact, it was deemed structurally sound and reopened within two months of the attacks. There’s no evidence he was carried out of it by firefighters.
But the lie isn’t even the worst part. Pretend it was all true — why would the leader of our country, and a New Yorker, decide to make that tragic day about himself?
Because that’s who Donald Trump is. He’s a malignant narcissist.
He’s also, incidentally, a terrible and ineffectual president, who’s made ill-fated decisions that he has to keep defending, and there’s nothing he won’t do to make himself look and feel better.
Within the first two minutes of his speech, he was cravenly using 9/11 to justify and promote his dumb war in Iran — two events separated by 25 years and 6,000 miles.
“And I will tell you, we’re right now fighting because we have a certain nation that wanted a nuclear weapon, they were very close to getting it, and now they have no chance at getting it. They will never have a nuclear weapon. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And they’ve been punished greatly. As you know, we’ve really taken it to them.”
As a New Yorker who lived through 9/11, still one of the worst days of my life, I’m utterly sickened by Trump’s crass, political, and self-promotional framing of that awful day.
And I’m relieved he won’t be given a platform to do it again on Friday’s anniversary in lower Manhattan.
Because for Trump, everything is his for the taking, and absolutely nothing is sacred.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.