California’s recent primary election has, once again, left the Golden State as a national laughingstock.
The public was left with few clues as to which candidates would advance to the general election on primary night. In many instances, vote counting dragged on for more than a week before voters knew who prevailed.
Not only have critics such as President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson blasted California’s election system, but even Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has acknowledged that it needs fixing.
While California has received most of the national attention, another deep-blue state — New York — has a history of election problems that is at least as troubling.
Like California, New York has struggled with absentee ballots. But the Empire State’s issues extend well beyond processing and counting mail ballots in a timely manner.
Just last year, ballots cast by dead voters were discovered in a Republican primary for a New York City Council seat in Brooklyn.
The race was close enough to trigger a full hand recount of every ballot. Had the margin been wider, those illegal votes likely would never have been uncovered.
A year earlier, six campaign volunteers from a 2023 Queens City Council campaign were indicted by the Queens District Attorney for allegedly participating in an absentee ballot fraud scheme.
According to prosecutors, the volunteers submitted absentee ballot applications for voters who never requested them, then illegally cast those ballots after they arrived.
A major factor behind these scandals is a 2021 law that dramatically changed how absentee ballots are counted in New York.
Passed overwhelmingly by the Democrat-controlled Legislature, the law prohibits candidates from objecting to a board of elections' decision to count a mail ballot. It also bars candidates from asking a judge to stop election officials from counting an absentee ballot.
Regardless of how much evidence may exist showing why a ballot should not be counted, the 2021 law stripped candidates and campaigns of any meaningful ability to challenge it before it is included in the final tally.
Republicans challenged the law in state court, arguing that it violated the New York Constitution.
The Court of Appeals, whose members were all appointed by Democratic governors, unanimously upheld the law in a 7-0 decision.
Even before the 2021 changes, New York's absentee ballot system had come under scrutiny.
Allegations of fraud in a 2021 Republican primary for a Staten Island City Council seat were serious enough for the Richmond County District Attorney to convene a grand jury.
Although no indictments were issued, the grand jury released a report containing factual findings and several recommendations for strengthening election security.
Among those recommendations were requiring voters to provide a handwritten signature and photo identification when applying for an absentee ballot.
The Democrat-controlled Legislature declined to adopt those reforms.
New York's election concerns are not limited to absentee ballots.
In 2020, Albany Democrats quietly inserted a generous public campaign finance program for state offices into the state budget.
Modeled after New York City's long-running public financing system, the program provides matching taxpayer dollars to participating candidates who meet certain fundraising thresholds.
Although the program is only in its second election cycle, it has already generated controversy.
Before the 2024 election was even over, a Queens Assembly candidate was indicted by federal prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating a straw-donor scheme to improperly obtain public matching funds.
An enforcement action against a 2024 Republican State Senate candidate in Central New York also remains pending. That candidate allegedly distributed gift cards to homeless individuals in exchange for campaign contributions that would qualify for taxpayer matching funds.
These problems were hardly unforeseeable.
New York's statewide public financing system was modeled after the New York City program, which has operated for more than three decades.
During that time, numerous candidates — including a former lieutenant governor — have faced criminal investigations related to the misuse of public campaign funds.
Like California, New York remains one of the nation's bluest states, where the results of the 2026 primary elections suggest that mainstream Democrats are increasingly being challenged by candidates identifying as democratic socialists.
At the same time, New York has played an outsized role in recent Republican successes on the national stage.
Republican victories in New York during the 2022 midterm elections proved critical to securing control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
With New York once again expected to play a pivotal role in determining which party controls the Speaker's gavel after the next congressional elections, the state's election system is likely to remain under intense scrutiny.