Voters approved five of six initiatives on the 2024 ballot, enshrining abortion rights in the state Constitution and giving Eric Adams more power in New York.
On the eve of November 5, “Vote 1 and Reject 2 to 6” became a popular chorus on liberal social media, urging New York voters to approve an “Equal Rights Amendment” enshrining abortion rights in the state Constitution and reject ballot proposals seen as a power grab from Mayor Eric Adams.
Michael Sisicki, assistant legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, says the group had just seven weeks to put together a campaign to educate voters about Propositions 2-6, which were added to the ballot at the last minute. In order to introduce statutory proposals into the ballot, it is necessary to create a temporary revision commission. Past inspections typically took up to a year. This time he was simply carried away two months.
The goal of most of these measures was not to improve the quality of life or services for New Yorkers, Sisicki says, but to establish more mayoral control. He describes most of them as “dangerous”. The NYCLU posted ads opposing the proposed measures and sent representatives from more than 60 organizations to speak to voters. “We saw how quickly people were convinced and understood that this was a power grab,” said Sisitsky Nation.
But that was not enough. with six initiatives on the New York ballot in 2024, five passed Tuesday. “This has always been a campaign where we knew time was not on our side because it was a rushed process by the mayor in the first place,” Sisicki said.
“The only ballot proposition that passed ‘overwhelmingly’ (in New York) was the statewide anti-discrimination proposition, Proposition 1,” wrote No Power Grab NYC, a grassroots coalition of civil rights groups and elected officials that oppose Proposals 2-6, in a statement. According to Election Commissionabout 77 percent of New York voters approved the Equal Rights Amendment.
While more than 20 states across the country have equality enshrined in their state constitutions, New York’s ERA is the most inclusive in the country by explicitly protecting reproductive rights and recognizing discrimination based on sex, gender identity, religion, ethnicity, and pregnancy status as unconstitutional. Proposition 1 was also the only non-Charter-related ballot initiative introduced by Mayor Adams, who was accused of federal corruption investigation in September.
“This team overcame a last-minute multimillion-dollar smear campaign by out-of-state billionaires who oppose abortion and want to scare and divide voters,” said Sasha Ahuja, director of New Yorkers for Equal Rights, a coalition of more than 500 organizations support Proposition 1. Volunteers knocked on more than 250,000 doors and made more than a million calls to voters to support Prop 1, according to Ahuja. Proposal 1 is almost accepted 62 percentgaining more than 4 million votes. “All over the state, voters went to the polls to protect their rights and the rights of future generations of New Yorkers.”
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The New York Republican Party and the New York Children’s Coalition opposed Prop. 1, saying it would limit parental rights in the state. “The ERA could also mandate that schools allow biological males to compete in women’s sports,” the New York Children’s Coalition wrote.
“We knew that this would be the playbook of the opposition and that a successful campaign would require a comprehensive plan to respond to their fear-mongering attacks,” Ahuja said. “That’s why more than 16 months ago, we put together a team of senior staff and experienced organizers to lead Prop 1 to victory. We have developed a comprehensive media strategy to respond to any lie the opposition chooses to run with.”
The successful proposals put forward by Mayor Eric Adams had the narrowest margins of any New York City ballot proposal, at least 15 years.
However, the approved measures will go into effect once the election is certified, which Emma Johnson, director of communications for Councilman Keith Powers, expects “sometime in early December.”
Proposition 2, which passed with 62 percent, amends the City Charter to expand the Sanitation Department’s authority when it comes to cleaning up public property. Sisicki fears that this will give “the Department of Sanitation the ability to fine, coerce, harass and criminalize street vendors.”
Proposition 3 requires a fiscal analysis of proposed local laws before their hearings and votes, as well as extending deadlines for certain budget reports. The proposal gives additional powers to Mayor Eric Adams, who will now be responsible for assessing the cost of laws before they are passed, and gives him more time to prepare the annual city budget. “It was something that creates new opportunities for the mayor’s office to oppose and try to derail legislation that has a financial impact on the city,” Sisicki says. Voters approved this initiative with only 55.7 percent — the lowest rate of all proposed.
Proposition 4 requires the City Council to give 30 days’ notice before voting on public safety laws related to the NYPD, NYFD and Department of Corrections, with additional public hearings held by the mayor at that time if necessary. While the proposal purports to give New Yorkers an opportunity to actively participate in conversations about shaping legislation, it could inconveniently delay the legislative process and has been opposed by groups such as the Legal Aid Society and the NYCLU.
Proposition 5 would expand the City Charter’s criteria when it comes to estimating the cost of maintaining city property and make those estimates public in order to improve the capital planning process. In a statement, the city council called it “nonsensical and misleading” change in capital planning. The proposal ignores recommended reforms that could address inefficiencies and would leave many city components, such as schools, water lines and roads, without a clear infrastructure review.
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Proposition 6 — the only measure that failed — would have made the position of chief business diversity officer permanent and allowed the mayor to determine which office issues filming permits. “I think when people saw it, it was just confusing, to be honest. Placing these questions does not make sense,” Sisitsky said.
Going forward, the legislative processes covered by the City Charter proposals “will be slowed down, with less oversight and less public access,” according to Johnson. “When the mayor centralizes his power in this way, the council has less opportunity to hold the administration accountable.”
Callan Ditmeyer, a student at Brooklyn College, praised the passage of Proposition 1 for the protections it would provide, but couldn’t say the same about Propositions 2 through 5. “I’m disappointed that they passed, as are many other things on these elections “cycle,” Callan said.
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Editorial Director and Publisher, Nation
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