Should New Yorkers only be able to vote in person on Election Day or, like dozens of other states, should they be allowed to cast ballots in the days leading up to the election? That’s one of the questions Gov. David Paterson is asking Secretary of the State Lorraine Cortes-Vazquez to look into.

   “Tuesday’s historic election saw a record number of New Yorkers go to the polls to cast their ballot. We are a better, stronger democracy when more citizens participate in elections,” the governor wrote to Cortes-Vazquez, asking for a report within 60 days on how the state will increase voter participation.

   Specifically, he wants to know the potential benefits, disadvantages and costs of moving toward an early voting system, including easing the process of filing absentee ballots, extending the number of days people can vote, and mail-in voting. Thirty-one states offer some form of (in-person) early voting, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

   The governor also wants an assessment of participation in Tuesday’s elections, the effectiveness of boards of elections and the most pressing barriers to voting. Finally, he wants an update on the state’s efforts to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act.

    Barbara Bartoletti of the New York League of Women Voters said her group supports early voting and what’s known as no-excuse absentee ballots (New York requires people to give an excuse for this type of voting, such as illness, but many other states don’t). Voter participation increases when more opportunities to cast ballots are provided, she said.

   “We think New York owes it to its voters to allow early voting so that we can experience even higher turnout,” she said.

   Detractors have said early voting can lead to fraud. Bartoletti said there is no documented evidence of fraud connected with early voting in this week’s election.

   On the Help America Vote Act, passed in the wake of the 2000 presidential voting debacle, New York is the last state to fully implement the law. HAVA’s purpose is to modernize elections and enable people with disabilities to vote independently. New York is under court order to replace its decades-old mechanical-lever voting machines by 2009, but state officials have said for many weeks that the timeline is in jeopardy. 

   The state had another setback last week, when the U.S. Election Assistance Commission suspended the certification of Systest, the company that has been testing and certifying new machines for New York. Testing has been suspended in the meantime, and the state Board of Elections is in limbo. The state hired Systest after having problems with its first testing company.