Permits New York city voters to sign designating petitions for multiple candidates for the same New York City municipal public office or party position.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A6320
SPONSOR: Valdez TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the election law, in relation to permitting New York
city voters to sign designating petitions for multiple candidates for
the same New York city municipal public office or party position
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To allow for New York City voters to support more than one candidate's
ballot petition for the same open elected office in local races.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends subdivision 3 of section 6-134 of the election law to
qualify that existing law does not apply to voters in New York City, so
there is no limit on the number of candidates a voter may designate on
petitions for New York City municipal races.
JUSTIFICATION:
Currently, a ballot petition is only allowed to hold a number of candi-
dates equal to the number of offices to be elected (or else be invali-
dated) across New York State; i.e. an individual is only allowed to sign
one ballot petition per elected position. In 2019, however, New York
City adopted ranked choice voting, a system wherein individuals can
express multiple preferences for a candidate. Over 70 percent of voters
in New York City voted in favor of ranked choice voting and the ability
to prioritize multiple candidates for the offices of mayor, comptroller,
public advocate, borough president and members of the City Council.
The proposed bill gets rid of the possibility of "over designations" in
New York City specifically, thereby enabling NYC voters to sign multiple
candidates' petitions for the same elected office. In doing so, ballot
petitioning becomes up-to-date with New York City's ranked choice voting
system where one may vote for more than one candidate per elected
office.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2023-24: A4653
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6320
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 4, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. VALDEZ -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Election Law
AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to permitting New York
city voters to sign designating petitions for multiple candidates for
the same New York city municipal public office or party position
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 3 of section 6-134 of the election law, as
2 added by chapter 709 of the laws of 1996, is amended to read as follows:
3 3. (a) If a voter shall sign any petition or petitions designating a
4 greater number of candidates for public office or party position than
5 the number of persons to be elected thereto [his] their signatures, if
6 they bear the same date, shall not be counted upon any petition, and if
7 they bear different dates shall be counted in the order of their priori-
8 ty of date, for only so many designees as there are persons to be
9 elected.
10 (b) Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph (a) of this subdivi-
11 sion, a voter in the city of New York may designate a greater number of
12 candidates for a New York city municipal public office or party position
13 within the five counties of New York city than the number of persons to
14 be elected, with no limit to the number of designations.
15 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00117-01-5
