AG Letitia James Sues Rensselaer County Over Voter Suppression

Minorities have been complaining about voter suppression for decades, now New York’s Attorney General Letitia James is taking action. Attorney General James is suing the Rensselaer County Board of Elections for voter suppression.

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Important primary elections are coming up next month, and AG James is pressing forward with her claim that Rensselaer County is not making early voting sites available in communities of color in Troy. Ms. James is seeking a court order for an accessible voting site in Troy by the June primary.

The lawsuit claims that the Board of Elections in Rensselaer County does not have an early voting location in Troy, and that is in violation of state law. She said, “Our vote is one of the most powerful tools we have in our democracy, and it is the responsibility of the government to ensure that every person with the right to vote can do so without hardship. The Rensselaer County Board of Elections has repeatedly refused to make early voting sites widely accessible to residents, unlawfully denying low-income communities of color fair and equal opportunity to vote.”

Ms. James says that the County has failed to provide early voting in areas where the majority of the residents are Black, Hispanic, or people earning lower incomes.
The law requires that the local Board of Elections provide voting sites that are easily accessible to all voters. Sites must be close to public and commuter traffic.

The Troy branch of the NAACP is also working to see voter suppression squashed. She says that her organization has been communicating with the Board of Elections for more than three years to try to resolve the issue of the necessity for appropriate early voting sites in the community.

Time is ticking for the resolution of this lawsuit. Attorney General James has been very busy lately, and this is another important case that she is working to resolve.

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