Let New York Vote coalition urged Albany to pass six voting rights bills before session’s end

In the final days of New York’s legislative session this June, the Let New York Vote coalition asked Albany to pass a package of six voting rights bills before lawmakers went home. Sawi, the coalition’s coordinator, wrote in the New York Daily News on June 4 that voting protections “once thought settled are increasingly vulnerable.”

The coalition cited Louisiana v. Callais, in which the U.S. Supreme Court allowed continued legal challenges to majority-Black congressional districts despite protections under the federal Voting Rights Act. The coalition argued that safeguards New Yorkers assumed were permanent are back in play, and Albany should shore up its own before the session closed.