Relates to empowering the commissioner of a board of elections to order a voting machine audit upon a finding of discrepancies and shall also be empowered to order an audit of a particular contest.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A347A
SPONSOR: Paulin TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the election law, in relation to empowering the commis-
sioner of a board of elections to order certain audits upon a finding of
discrepancies
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To allow either commissioner of a board of elections to order that an
escalated audit be conducted whenever a discrepancy exists between an
audit and the machine vote tallies for an election result or to order
that an audit of a particular contest be conducted.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1 provides that this act shall be known and may be cited as the
"Election Commissioner Authorization Act of New York (ECAA)."
Section 2 amends subdivision 3 of section 9-211 of the election law, to
allow either commissioner, of a board of elections to order an escalated
audit when discrepancy exists between audit tallies and the voting
machine tallies, requiring a further audit and to allow either commis-
sioner to order an audit of a particular contest.
Section 3 provides the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
This legislation would allow either commissioner of a board of elections
to order that an escalated audit be conducted whenever a discrepancy
exists between audit tallies and the machine vote tallies for an
election result. Courts have interpreted the current law, section
9-211(3) of the election law, which states that an escalated audit may
be ordered by "any board of elections" to mean that the commissioners
from the Democratic and Republican parties must both request such audit.
Therefore in practice, these audits never happen for partisan reasons
because the party of the winning candidate does not agree to the audit.
In addition, the audit law does not require any particular contest to be
audited, nor does it allow a commissioner to conduct an audit of any
particular contest. This reduces public confidence in electoral
outcomes.
Amending the law to allow that either commissioner may order an esca-
lated audit when necessary will promote greater transparency and the
integrity of our election process.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
A.876 of 2023 and 2024, referred to election law. Same as S2335,
referred to elections
A.913 of 2021 and 2022, referred to election law. Same as S.332,
referred to elections.
A.8448 of 2019 and 2020, referred to election law. Same as 5.6735,
referred to rules in 2019, referred to elections in 2020.
FISCAL IMPLICATION:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
347--A
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY(Prefiled)
January 8, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. PAULIN, REYES, RIVERA, SAYEGH, SIMON, DeSTEFANO,
BRABENEC -- read once and referred to the Committee on Election Law --
committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and
recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to empowering the commis-
sioner of a board of elections to order certain audits upon a finding
of discrepancies
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "election
2 commissioner authorization act of New York (ECAA)".
3 § 2. Subdivision 4 of section 9-211 of the election law, as amended by
4 chapter 763 of the laws of 2021, is amended to read as follows:
5 4. The state board of elections shall, in accordance with subdivision
6 four of section 3-100 of this chapter, promulgate regulations establish-
7 ing a uniform statewide standard to be used by boards of elections to
8 determine when a discrepancy between the audit tallies and the voting
9 machine or system tallies shall require a further voter verifiable
10 record audit of additional voting machines or systems or a complete
11 audit of all machines or systems within the jurisdiction of a board of
12 elections. Any commissioner of a board of elections shall be empowered
13 to order that any such audit shall be conducted whenever any such
14 discrepancy exists and shall also be empowered to order an audit of a
15 particular contest.
16 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01047-02-5
