BILL NUMBER: S843A
SPONSOR: MAY
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the election law, in relation to establishing minimum
staffing levels for certain local board of elections
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
This legislation would ensure that each local board of elections is
properly staffed with an appropriate number of employees proportional to
the number of registered voters.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one of the bill would amend section 3-300 of the election law to
require boards of elections to employ a minimum of 4 full time employees
and employ an additional 2 employees for every 20,000 active registered
voters.
Section two would establish the effective date.
 
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ORIGINAL AND AMENDED VERSION (IF APPLICABLE):
The a-print amendments would include full-time commissioners and full-
time deputies in the required number of full-time employees. The amend-
ments would also apply to a county that includes over ten thousand
active registered voters and remove the provision of beyond forty thou-
sand active voters. Additionally, boards of elections would be required
to hire two additional full-time employees annually within three years
of the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Voting is a part of an individual's civic duty. Participation in poli-
tical discourse and elections has increased over the past two years.
This is largely in part to the fact that New York State has taken affir-
mative action to increase voter participation and increase access to
voting.
Recent chapters, allow for early voting, ballot drop boxes, and mail in
voting. The State is also poised to adopt automatic voter registration,
same day registration, a permanent no-fault absentee ballot program.
Many boards of elections currently rely on a mix of full time employees
and temporary employees a full time staff who is qualified, trained, and
up to date with current election law.
The State has assisted local boards with funding early voting initi-
atives, including most recently, $2 million in additional funding for
Local Boards of Elections in the Adopted Budget FY 2021-2022. A majority
of local boards' current staffing structure already comply with this
legislation. This would ensure uniformity so that boards of elections
are equipped to handle the volume of voters in a given area. Nothing in
this law would prohibit a board of elections from hiring more staff than
as required by this legislation.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2023-24: A1258A
2021-22: A7780A
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.

Statutes affected:
S843: 3-300 election law
S843A: 3-300 election law