New York courts would get broader power in voting-rights cases

New York lawmakers are revising part of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York to make it easier to spot voting patterns that split protected communities from everyone else. The bill would replace older wording in the state’s definition of “racially polarized voting” so it covers divergence between members of a protected class and another class or set of classes, not just the rest of the electorate.

That matters because the definition helps shape when election rules or maps are challenged and how courts assess the harm. The proposal also reaches more election changes before they can take effect, including polling-place number, location and hours, election dates, the election calendar and how election districts are assigned to polling sites.

A broader gate around election changes

The bill would also pull in language-minority assistance, voter list maintenance, poll-site hours and related election procedures. Those are the kinds of details voters feel fast, in lines, in commute time and in whether a local polling place stays where people expect it to be.

If a court finds a violation, the proposal would give judges more room to fashion a remedy without having to defer to a plan offered by a board of elections or political subdivision. It would also let a court order a fix even when another state or local law would otherwise stand in the way.