Suit Challenges Cannabis Bill Ballot Placement Citing Discrimination
A man is challenging New York State Board of Elections’ placement of recreational cannabis ballot measure on the back of the ballot, saying that placement is discrimination against age and race.
On August 11, Evan Davis filed Davis v. Board of Elections, 05249/17, a lawsuit against the New York State Board of Elections to push Proposition 1, New York’s recreational cannabis initiative, from the back to the front of the ballot. But on August 24, the Supreme Court Justice Richard McNally dismissed his lawsuit.
Davis argues that unusual ballot placement was both age and racially discriminatory. ” . . . Voters are particularly susceptible to a form of bias known as the ‘primacy effect,’ whereby they are more likely to select an early, rather than later, answer choice from a list of possibilities,” reads a study cited by the petition. “The frequency of residual votes, where a voter fails to respond to a question and simply leaves the vote blank, is higher when ballot questions or proposals are placed farther down the ballot or on the back side of a paper ballot . . . this increase [is] particularly acute in minority-majority precincts and those with a high population of elderly voters.”
Davis argued that the Convention Question must appear on the front of the ballot to satisfy requirements under Article 19 of New York’s State Constitution. The election board, Davis argued, does not have the discretion to place it in the back of the ballot. Davis is senior counsel at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and founder of the Committee for a Constitutional Convention.
One of the top PAC lobbying for Yes on Prop 1 is Restrict & Regulate in NY State 2019, according to Board of Equalization filings. Restrict & Regulate in NY State 2019 is working towards getting a recreational initiative to move forward in New York.
