BOE to Send Absentee Applications to All Voters + Salazar & Mamdani Introduce Legislation to Protect Cab Drivers

Local News

• State Senator Julia Salazar (D-Bushwick) and candidate for Assembly Zohran Mamdani introduced legislation, and called on Governor Andrew Cuomo to adopt measures by executive order, to protect cab drivers during the COVID-19 crisis, including by making them eligible for unemployment insurance.
• The New York City Council introduced a COVID-19 relief package in their first virtual meeting last week. The package includes a bill to open up 75 miles of streets to pedestrians, an “Essential Workers’ Bill of Rights” that would require some companies to increase hazard pay, and a bill to extend the eviction moratorium through April 2021. 
• Mayor Bill de Blasio again called for the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) to institute a rent freeze for the city’s rent-stabilized units, but the RGB is currently considering rent hikes of up to 3.5% for one year leases and 6.75% for two year leases.
• At least four homeless New Yorkers who were deemed to have only “mild” symptoms of COVID-19 died while under self-quarantine in shelters or isolation hotel rooms.
• The New York City Council is looking for a way to keep the youth summer jobs program open in some form this year, according to Speaker Corey Johnson.
• The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) is suing the state Department of Health, the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, and the Westchester County Health Care Corporation for failing to adequately protect health care staff.
• The state’s list of “essential” construction projects has grown from only 800 to nearly 5,000, including a Target in Queens and a new building for Columbia University’s business school, as Governor Cuomo expanded the definition of “essential.”
• The MTA announced that it has completed repairs to the L train tunnel, and that regular service will resume Monday.
• Judges are now ordering electronic monitoring of defendants, in lieu of bail, to reduce the jail population at Rikers Island.

Elections

• Governor Cuomo issued an executive order requiring that the Board of Elections send a postage-paid absentee ballot application to all registered voters in the state. Voters must fill-out and return this application in order to be mailed a ballot for the June primary. Polls will also be open on June 23.

• Progressive candidates across the city have been facing ballot challenges:

  • Mary Jobaida and Moumita Ahmed, who are both running progressive campaigns against Queens machine incumbents, were thrown off the June ballot due to technicalities surrounding the names they used to register to vote. Jobaida, who is running for Assembly District 37 (Long Island City), and Ahmed, who is running for District Leader in Assembly District 24 (Fresh Meadows), have both vowed to sue.
  • Sandy Nurse, a progressive running for City Council District 37 (Bushwick) in this June’s special election, has been barred from the ballot thanks to a legal challenge against her petition signatures. Nurse has accused the Board of Elections, the Brooklyn Democratic Party, and Mayor de Blasio of conspiring to install her opponent Darma Diaz in the vacant council seat. This election was later cancelled by Governor Cuomo.
  • District Leader Nick Rizzo, a progressive incumbent (Assembly District 50, Greenpoint), was also removed from the ballot.
• Governor Cuomo signed an executive order canceling special elections that were scheduled for June.