As part of a long meeting yesterday, the New York City Council voted overwhelmingly, 47-1, to pass Int. 978, a bill that would exempt member organizations and corporations from disclosing member-to-member communications in relation to candidates or issues that they support during an election year. The passage is a victory for unions, corporations, and other membership organizations, who were previously allowed such communications with their members or shareholders before the Campaign Finance Board (CFB) promulgated changes to the city Charter… [More]

As the polls closed last night, elected officials ripped into the Board of Elections for what they perceived to be a lack of preparation and an inability to make adjustments. “We’ve had complaints from constituents where districts have changed,” City Councilman David Greenfield said. “In one case, a constituent had been sent to three different polling locations, we confirmed where he had to go and they said ‘sorry you’re not in the books’ and he’d been coming there for 20… [More]

With Election Day rapidly approaching, the devastation from Hurricane Sandy could have residual consequences that may alter the outcome of local and federal elections. With many polling sites still without power and thousands of residents displaced due to flooding and damage to their homes, the New York City Board of Elections has been scrambling to come up with solutions that would allow voters to cast their ballot. With its Lower Manhattan offices incapacitated due to power outages and flooding, the… [More]

* Common Cause and National Organization of Women-New York City filed a complaint on Wednesday urging the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics to investigate embattled Assemblyman Vito Lopez’s past conduct and look into whether his current and former staff had any knowledge of harassment. That includes Councilman Steve Levin, who served as Lopez’s chief of staff from 2006 to 2009. Good government groups want to find out what Levin knew and when he knew it, though Levin told the… [More]