Gothamist reports that on June 20 Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the "John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York" into law. “As always, when the federal government fails to act, you can count on New York to punch back and fight even harder,” Hochul said. “No state in the nation has stood up with the courage and the conviction and the power that we have by protecting these important rights.” The new law prohibits local election administrators from taking actions that could suppress votes based on race and requires election administrators in jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination to seek an authorization before a change is made, from the state attorney general’s office or a local court. Hochul signed the bill on the federal Juneteenth holiday, which commemorates when the last enslaved Africans were told they were freed two years after the end of the Civil War. Read more about this story at Gothamist.