Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
TESTIMONY
Testimony by L. Joy Williams, President of NAACP New York State Conference, on the need for more community engagement on open primary proposals
1:30:03
·
3 min
L. Joy Williams, President of the NAACP New York State Conference, urges the commission to slow down its consideration of open primary electoral reforms.
She argues that while the question is worth asking, the process has lacked rigorous, independent study on how open primary systems would specifically impact Black voters in New York City, and has not involved deep, citywide community engagement beyond public hearings.
Williams emphasizes that New York City's political structures and racial history are unique and that reforms must be evaluated in context, not just based on data from other locations.
- She also challenges the assumption that a robust voter education plan will automatically follow if a proposal is added to the ballot, citing the city's record of underfunded and rushed civic education efforts.
L. Joy Williams
1:30:03
No problem.
1:30:03
I'll try my best to be quick, in tomorrow's election day and spending my day trying to get water for voters, for election day tomorrow, so, doing our best here.
1:30:16
My name is Eljoy Williams.
1:30:17
I'm the president of the NAACP New York State Conference.
1:30:22
The Charter Revision Commission offers New Yorkers a meaningful opportunity to weigh in.
1:30:27
I have lots of opinions, not only on the voting process, but also on the land use piece, which I'm not gonna be able to be able to dive in today.
1:30:38
But I urge the commission to slow down on the electoral reform pieces on open primary specifically and putting on the November ballot, not because it's not a question worth asking, not because I individually may be opposed or supportive of it, but because this process has not honored the full weight of what the question demands.
1:31:04
And that has been that there has not been rigorous or independent study on how open primary systems would impact black voters of New York City.
1:31:14
Not that there isn't research on how open primaries have impacted other places, which engaged it, but that there's not been deep citywide community engagement in addition, to this.
1:31:26
While the commission certainly has had hearings and discussions and heard from folks, as a community organizer, there is a difference between having public hearings and having deep community engagement on a question.
1:31:41
So analysis without community interpretation is incomplete and showing data that may show that there is no harm is not the same as showing benefit or addressing the root causes of disengagement.
1:31:56
I respect the research and the experts that have been here, but New York City is not Chicago.
1:32:02
It's not Louisiana.
1:32:04
And our political structures, our party dynamics, and our racial history are different.
1:32:09
Reforms must be evaluated in context.
1:32:12
And if the system is as promising as some suggest, why not build public buy in first?
1:32:19
Democratic reforms succeed when people feel invited into process, not when they're supervised by it.
1:32:25
Open primaries are not just a procedural tweak.
1:32:28
This is not just an upgrade.
1:32:30
They change how power operates in elections, and that deserves more than our few months of discussion here and the impending ballot deadline of November.
1:32:41
I also want to challenge, and this is a huge point for me, the assumption that a robust voter education plan will follow if this is added to the ballot, and we indeed march towards that that goal.
1:32:55
Because I don't oppose education efforts.
1:32:58
Obviously, I lead them.
1:33:00
But the city's record shows that the civic education is often underfunded.
1:33:05
It is rushed and reliant on volunteer led organizations like mine.
1:33:10
And so I look forward to questions any further or talking about why we are engaged in this process and what some of our hesitation may be.