Stefan Mychajliw, South Shore Press News Director: You know election law like the back of your hand. You help write portions of it. You were the former counsel to the New York State Board of Elections. So I just want to get your opinion first. Your reaction to the proposed legislation put forth by Democrats in New York State that basically kicks the can and delays special elections.
Joe Burns, Attorney, Holtzman Vogel law firm: It's pretty shocking. The word leaked out two weeks ago that the Dems in the state legislature were looking to change this process. Then last Friday, the bill, which was sponsored by the Assembly Speaker and the Senate Majority Leader, dropped late last Friday.
The bill would allow the Governor to set the special election date on the same day as the general election.. For instance, a race for Congress, a special election to fill a vacancy of Congress would have to be called by the governor within 10 days of the vacancy and then set for 70 to 80 days from the Governor's proclamation.
That (the proposed bill) alters that process. It now gives the Governor 15 days from a vacancy, but it gives the Governor the ability to set the special election as late as the general election day. Big change.
Mychajliw: And let's call a spade a spade. Elise Stefanik, a Congresswoman in the North Country. She's going to be the UN Ambassador for Donald Trump. There's going to be a Republican vacancy. And there's a razor thin majority right now the GOP in Congress. So isn't this just a way for Democrats to not fill that seat and thus lower the Republican majority in the house?
Burns: That's exactly what the idea is. And it's been reported now that Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was the driving force behind this effort. It’s pretty obvious, I think you hit the nail on the head, there's a very narrow Republican majority right now, including some vacancies from members who have left to go to the Administration. It's a razor thin majority.
This District, 21st District, has gotten very Republican in recent years. Essentially impossible, I think, at this point for a Democrat to prevail.
But I think Jeffries and others are thinking that they will count it as a win just leaving this seat vacant until November.
What you're going to have is, three quarters of a million people unrepresented in Congress, not able to have a voice in all the great debates that are happening, not able to have somebody to represent their interests, not able to have somebody do some of the basics that a member of Congress would do, make sure you get your Social Security check, work out any problems with the Post Office. These people, three quarters of a million New Yorkers, would be unrepresented until November.
Mychajliw: And isn't that the true threat to democracy? Because we hear those on the left side of the spectrum say January 6th, threat to democracy.
I disagree, horrible event, but it wasn't a true threat to democracy. didn't impact the democratic process, in my opinion.
Joe, I'd like you to opine on this, isn't this a true threat to democracy by basically forcing the seat to remain open, not having representation for pure political reasons?
Burns: It's certainly pretty disgusting and I would suggest everybody take a look at the actual language of the US Constitution. The US Constitution commands, in Article 1 of the US Constitution, a state's executive authority, the governor, is commanded to call special elections to fill vacancies in Congress. This controversy goes back even further than the Constitution.
If you look at the Declaration of Independence, one of the grievances that the Continental Congress made against George III was that he was refusing to call elections to elect public officials.
I think it's pretty astounding that here we are 200 plus years later, we're almost a quarter century from the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and we're still having these fights, that this is the same kind of controversy that the colonists were complaining about in 1776.
Mychajliw: You must be a Syracuse grad dropping all that knowledge.
Burns: (Laughing) Something like that.
Mychajliw: So at the end of the day, Joe, this passes, won't it just end up in court, forcing the Governor one way or another on this issue?
Burns: It's certainly possible. New York has a history of when Governors play politics, then lawsuits follow to require Governors to call special elections to fill vacancies. There was a vacancy in a Staten Island based congressional seat 10 or more years ago.
Governor Cuomo, who was then the governor at that time, was sued in federal court. And the judge ordered that he call a special election to fill that vacancy.
More recently, in 2019 and then into 2020, there was a lawsuit. I was actually the attorney for the plaintiffs. There was a lawsuit that was brought by voters and Republican party leaders in what was then the 27th district to compel the governor to call a special election to fill the vacancy that was caused by Congressman Collins' resignation.
The governor ended up agreeing to call a special election to fill that vacancy, which was then later delayed because of COVID.
To your point, there's a rich and unfortunate history of Governors playing politics and dragging their feet and beyond just not calling special elections, making sure that people are not represented, making sure that citizens are not represented.
This process was reformed in 2021 by the State Legislature. It was a good and necessary reform.
I think it's really unfortunate that things seem to be headed in the direction that they are headed with people, with citizens, not being represented.