MidHudsonNews [dot] com is reporting New York lawmakers wasted no time in approving some major voting reforms, Jan. 14. During their first session day the members of the Assembly and Senate gave their okay to early voting 10 days prior to primary day and general election day. The measure provides each county with at least one early voting site for every 50,000 registered voters. Legislators also consolidated primary day. The federal primary has been held in June with the state primary in September, but both will now be held on the fourth Tuesday in June. The first step in enacting same-day registration and no-reason absentee ballots were also approved. Both of those reforms require constitutional amendments, and must be approved by two consecutive state legislatures followed by a public referendum. Jesse McKinley and Vivian Wang are reporting for The New York Times the full roster of reforms, which also includes preregistration of minors, voting by mail and closing the so-called LLC loophole, now brings the state into line with policies already in place in other liberal states, like California and Washington. “We are finally beginning to see New York’s elections begin — just begin — to catch up with the rest of the country,” said Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, a good-government group.