Editorials of The Times

The New York state primaries — elections that might help determine the fate of the city’s subways, schools and housing and maybe even Donald Trump’s presidency — are on Thursday, Sept. 13. That’s right, a Thursday.

The election was initially scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 11, but it was changed amid concerns that the date coincided with the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana and the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks. Primary elections generally suffer from abysmal turnout, but the decision by the Legislature to hold the primaries on a Thursday — rather than another Tuesday — is likely to confuse voters and to lower turnout further, giving a bigger boost to incumbents.

Here are a few ideas to fight back and make these races for governor, attorney general, state Legislature and local judgeships more competitive. Depending on their party registration (and Democrats outnumber Republicans more than 2-1 in New York), voters have the chance to weigh in on Democratic, Republican or third-party primaries, and even unaffiliated voters can cast ballots, in the Reform Party primary.

Mayor Bill de Blasio could ramp up get-out-the-vote efforts by allocating more money to the New York City Campaign Finance Board, a nonpartisan agency that sends people to knock on doors and call voters.

The board might even still have time to place ads in subways and buses. Public service announcements on subways remind riders about train etiquette and to say something if they see something. Why not harness that power to remind New Yorkers to vote?

The city could send its 1.1 million public school students home with simple flyers the first week of classes reminding parents about the election. The Parks Department could print banners to be seen from Flushing Meadows to Marine Park — much as it did to promote the mayor’s prekindergarten program. The city could put the same message on LinkNYC Wi-Fi kiosks. The state could help, too, by using its digital highway signs.

And there’s no reason the effort should be left to government alone.

Small businesses could get in on the push. During the 2016 presidential elections, Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain in Carroll Gardens offered free egg creams to those who displayed an “I voted” sticker. What creative efforts to encourage voting could a big company like Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts dream up? We’ll refrain from urging Facebook to play a role, given its track record on elections, but maybe those annoying video screens in yellow and green taxis could pitch participation?

Local media has been beating the drum about the Thursday elections for some time. That’s especially true of Spectrum News NY1, where the political director, Bob Hardt, recently posted a delightful video on Twitter explaining why the Sept. 13 primaries are important.

The winners of these primary races could determine whether New York enacts fair laws for renters, reforms its criminal justice system and secures the funding desperately needed for its subway system. The winners will have the chance to further undercut Albany’s incumbent-protection racket by making it far easier, at last, to vote in New York. And also at stake is an important effort to change state law to ensure that anyone pardoned by Trump can be prosecuted for possible state crimes.

ManyAmericans are understandablyfocusing on the midterm congressional elections in November. But voters in New York should remember to take care of business closer to home first — andhold the state accountable to the people it represents.

It has taken a long time — too long — to fully acknowledge the terrible suffering of the Rohingya people at the hands of Myanmar’s military rulers, perhaps because of the world’s reluctance to jeopardize their tentative political opening. A newly released United Nations report should put an end to any hesitation about holding the generals, and their civilian enablers, to account for what they have done: genocide and crimes against humanity.

Genocide is the most serious charge that can be leveled against a regime. It means, in effect, the premeditated destruction of a people, and for all the denials and evasions of Myanmar’s generals, that is what they have tried to do to the Rohingya Muslims, which has been condoned by the failure of civilian leaders — including the once-revered Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi — to speak out.

In the 18-page report released on Monday, the three-member U.N. Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar declared that the atrocities committed by the military in their campaign to cleanse Myanmar of the Rohingya “undoubtedly amount to the gravest crimes under international law.” The panel said estimates of 10,000 deaths in the campaign were conservative and cited witness accounts of mass killings, gang rapes and destruction of villages by the military. More than 1 million Rohingya are believed to be living in overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh.

The Rohingya are a Muslim minority that has lived for generations in Myanmar and yet has been long treated by the Buddhist majority as interlopers from Bangladesh and denied citizenship and basic rights. In recent years, tens of thousands fled to Bangladesh to escape violence. The ethnic cleansing reached a new level a year ago, after Rohingya militants attacked Myanmar security posts.

According to the U.N. panel, the military’s response was far out of proportion, indicating a premeditated campaign. Military necessity, the panel wrote, “would never justify killing indiscriminately, gang-raping women, assaulting children and burning entire villages.” The panel also assailed the virulent hate speech against the Rohingya on social platforms, notably Facebook. Facebook subsequently said it was taking additional steps to block the propaganda.

Most of the atrocities detailed by the report have been described before. But the panel’s charge of genocide, and the naming of six senior military figures, including the commander in chief of the armed forces and his deputy, raised accusations that cannot be neglected by the international community.

Myanmar itself will not act, as the military and civilian authorities have made clear in their denials and phony internal investigations. The U.N. fact-finding mission lacks the power to bring charges before the International Criminal Court or to set up an international tribunal, and any such action by the Security Council would most likely be blocked by China, Myanmar’s patron.

But there are other remedies: sanctions, travel bans, a freeze on the assets of those named. The European Union has scheduled a meeting with the U.N. team this week; earlier this month the United States imposed sanctions on several Myanmar security officers and two military units, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. would continue to hold accountable those responsible for “abhorrent ethnic cleansing” of Rohingya Muslims.

However it is done, the Myanmar generals and their civilian enablers must be held to account and the terrible persecution of the Rohingya brought to an end.