Court’s mail-in voting decision is a slap in the face to NY’s voters

So much for “no means no.”

That’s the message from the state Court of Appeals, which ruled last week that New Yorkers don’t need an excuse to cast an absentee ballot by mail when they’re otherwise able to vote in person — even though the voters themselves have directly rejected such a measure.

Mail-in voting is hardly a revolutionary idea: Oregon since 2000 has conducted elections exclusively by mail, and several other states have followed, including Vermont.

But it involves an important balancing act, as state officials seek to maximize election participation while minimizing — to varying levels of success — fraud.

That’s what made the new ruling from New York’s top court so problematic.