Senator Liz Krueger along with Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright, both representing Roosevelt Island, championed an Equal Rights Amendment for this fall’s ballot. But they’ve run into interference with the State Board of Elections over critical wording. Following is Senator Krueger’s most recent official statement.
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
“As the sponsor of the legislation that placed the Equal Rights Amendment on the ballot, I was joined last week by most of the Senate Majority Conference and 1,500 of our fellow New Yorkers who submitted comments calling on the Board of Elections to fix their proposed ballot language. So I am deeply disappointed that today the Board chose to completely ignore that input from New Yorkers, and approve their flawed language.
“The Board’s language violates both the spirit and the letter of the plain language law, and will lead to confusion at the polls in November. It must be changed to improve comprehensibility, using everyday language such as ‘LGBT,’ and it must include the word ‘abortion.’ The Legislature passed the ERA with the express purpose of protecting abortion; that will be its impact, and that must be clear to voters when they read the ballot.
“It is important for New Yorkers to understand that regardless of the form the question takes on the ballot, the proposed Equal Rights Amendment itself remains unchanged – it will protect New Yorkers’ abortion rights, and add critical protections against discrimination into our State Constitution. Enshrining those rights in our constitution is more important than ever. I urge voters to educate themselves, tell their friends and family, turn their ballots over on November 5th and vote on the Equal Rights Amendment.”
Can the Lawsuit Reach the Stacks in Time?
The underlying record remains largely hidden. Now two residents have taken the question somewhere government cannot manage quite as easily: a courtroom.
