On Tuesday, New York's Democrat Lieutenant Governor, Brian Benjamin, was arrested on campaign finance-related charges. Fox News reported:

Benjamin is facing charges of bribery, conspiracy, honest services wire fraud, and falsification of records. The various offenses carry maximum penalties ranging between five and 20 years in prison.

In an unprecedented action, the New York City Council approved legislation earlier this month that will give 800,000 noncitizen residents the right to vote in local elections. The New York Post reported:

After an unsuccessful 11th-hour attempt by more than a dozen Democratic and Republican lawmakers to send the legislation back to a committee to be adjusted, the bill passed the 51-member body 33-14 with two abstentions, sending it to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s desk.

New York City has some of the strictest COVID-19 restrictions in the United States—and they just got worse. Outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio announced today that he would be expanding the city's vaccine mandate to apply to children ages 5 and older:

Children ages 5 to 11 must show proof of one vaccination dose to eat out, see a show, go to a movie theater, visit a fitness facility, or attend indoor entertainment venues by Dec. 14.

It's been one week since Election Day, and as the RNC reports, last week's elections are proof that GOP-backed voting reforms work:

• In Georgia, Democrats lied about SB202, Georgia’s election integrity law, which led to a Democrat-backed boycott meant to hurt small businesses.
  • On Election Day, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote that voters saw “short lines,” “few problems,” and no “obstacles at the polls.”

New York City's mayoral primary election held last Tuesday shows us yet again just how bad Democrat cities are at running elections. The Associated Press reported that New York City's election was marred by errors after the Board of Elections was entirely "unprepared to implement" its new ranked-choice voting system.

BREAKING: Election officials in New York City have retracted their latest vote totals for the Democratic primary for mayor. They say 135,000 test ballots were inadvertently included in the count. https://t.co/mUvVW8k6VR

— The Associated Press (@AP) June 30, 2021

On Thursday, New York Attorney General Letitia James released a bombshell report that shows what was already suspected about Governor Andrew Cuomo's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Governor Cuomo severely misled the public about the number of COVID-19 deaths from the state's nursing home residents. The report is the latest chapter in the controversy surrounding a Health Department directive from last March which required nursing homes to accept residents who had tested positive for the virus:

The count of deaths in the state’s nursing homes has been a source of controversy for Mr. Cuomo and state Health Department officials, who have been sensitive to any suggestion that decisions made at the outset of the pandemic may have caused some of those deaths, which the state puts at more than 8,700.

It's been nearly 3 months since Election Day, but the results of the race for New York's 22nd Congressional District are still hanging in the balance. Yesterday, appellate division Justice Patrick NeMoyer rejected Democrat Anthony Brindisi's request to halt a review of over 1,000 ballots ordered by state Supreme Court Justice Scott DelConte:

The review aims to determine if any of those ballots belong to voters who applied to vote on time via the state Department of Motor Vehicles. Those voters’ applications were never processed, rendering those people unable to vote on Election Day.

State Supreme Court Justice Scott DelConte last week ordered Oneida County officials to dig into the batch of ballots to see how many voters were disenfranchised through no fault of their own and to count the votes of people in that situation.

Over a month after Election Day, the NY-22 congressional race has yet to be decided. In fact, it is the only remaining House race to be called. Republican Claudia Tenney is currently 12 votes ahead and has urged the certification of the results. However, NY Supreme Court Justice Scott J. DelConte has ordered election officials from 8 counties to recanvass ballots — including some that were previously mishandled by local officials. This is problematic because it sets a precedent for allowing votes to be counted after the statuary period to do so has expired.

More than 2 weeks after Election Day, seven congressional races are still uncalled in New York and California. These issues are a result of the dramatic expansion of mail voting in these states. Committee on House Administration Ranking Member Rodney Davis released a statement about the current state of the races:

"It is ridiculous that California and New York are still counting more than two weeks after an election,” said Davis. “We’ve had election observers in many of these districts and what they’re witnessing is the state’s failure to run efficient elections. In California’s case, it’s the Secretary of State’s decision to mail live ballots to decades-old voter rolls. In New York, it’s the state increasing mail-in voting without making the other changes needed to ensure election officials can count these votes in a timely manner. I understand that this year was unprecedented, but the people of California and New York deserve a better process."

Voting is officially underway for the 2020 general election across the country.  In states like Pennsylvania, there is concern about how recent changes to state law will affect the election, especially when considering the numerous problems that happened during the primary earlier this year.  In both the District of Columbia and in New York City, voting already seems to be just as fraught with issues as it was during the primaries.