While most Americans are focused upon trials and court rulings impacting the 2024 presidential election, let’s take a moment to review two significant New York-related developments. In both cases, the goal was to expand voting rights. As of now, one succeeded and one did not.

Early Mail-In Voting

Congressman Tom Suozzi won his special election replacing George Santos for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was his experience, message and hard work. But election lawyers and practitioners should note that his team focused on early mail-in voting and banked about 80,000 votes before Election Day out of a total of about 170,000 ballots cast. After all, the special election occurred in mid-February, and it was certainly possible that a winter storm could impact or disrupt voting on that day—which, in fact, actually occurred.