The city Board of Elections wants the state to “review” whether the Big Apple’s controversial new non-citizen voting law is legal.
The new law is currently being challenged in court.
“The city board respectfully requests a review for the attached local law and letter from The Council. … The city board looks to your relevant guidance, instruction and/or opinion,” city BOE president Rodney Pepe-Souvenir said in a Jan. 19 letter to the state Board of Elections.
A group of New York Republicans filed a lawsuit recently seeking to block the law, which would allow about 800,000 legal non-citizens to vote in local elections.
Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said the letter from city elections officials shows that they also think the law is illegal — and shouldn’t be implemented.
“The New York City BOE knows what we all know, the law is unworkable, unconstitutional and un-American, which is why we will win in court,” Fossella told The Post.
Fred Umane, a Republican commissioner on the city elections board, said the state panel keeps the official tallies of registered voters, and therefore would have to approve adding non-citizen city voters to the rolls.
“They have to approve our modifying the voter registration records. We’re asking them what to do,” he said.
But the move drew immediate criticism from other election officials, who said the much-maligned city agency is seeking “cover” in case they botch the implementation of adding non-citizen voters to the rolls, much as the board initially screwed up the count for ranked-choice voting last year.
Doug Kellner, a Democrat and co-chairman of the state Board of Elections, called the letter “silly” and dismissed it as a “press release.”
“It’s not rocket science to create a new voter category. Where’s their proposal?” Kellner asked.
“I don’t know why they sent this to us. Some of this may be about seeking cover for implementation of non-citizen voting.”
In the letter, Pepe-Souvenir said the city BOE must have a plan in place to accommodate non-citizen voters by July 1.
Kellner admitted the city law is controversial within the state elections board that consists of two Republicans and two Democrats. The two Republican commissioners claim non-citizen voting is illegal.
“We will abide by what the courts decide,” Kellner said.
Both Mayor Eric Adams and predecessor Bill de Blasio raised concerns about the legislation. But in the end, they supported the law despite their misgivings.
Meanwhile, Republican Minority Council Leader Joe Borelli also said the letter sent to Albany “is a clear indication that the city Board of Elections does not wish to violate the state law and realizes it doesn’t have the power to do what is actually required by Intro 1847,” he said, referring to the law.
“The state Board of Elections will not authorize the city to violate state law. This is what I have been saying from Day One and it is about to play out….It’s unfortunate that the Council did not read the plain English Language in state election law … [that says] ‘only citizens can vote in elections,'” Borelli said.
