BILL NUMBER: S1299
SPONSOR: BORRELLO
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the election law, in relation to enacting the "voter
registration integrity act"
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
The purpose of this legislation is to ensure that newly registered
voters are citizens of the United States.
 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1 names the bill the "voter registration integrity act."
Section 2 amends section 5-210 of the election law by requiring first-
time voter registration applications to include a birth certificate
establishing U.S. citizenship, a valid U.S, passport, a certificate of
naturalization or citizenship, or such other documentation that the
state board of elections determines establishes U.S. citizenship.
Section 3 amends section 5-210 of the election to include documentation
of U.S. citizenship.
Section 4 provides that this bill would become effective 60 days after
it becomes law.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Fundamental to a valid democracy is that those who run the country as
elected officials are elected by those who are citizens of the country.
Otherwise, those who are illegally in the country or are not citizens
would be able to help elect federal, state, and local public officials,
whose loyalty to the citizens of the country might be compromised.
New York State currently does not require any documentary evidence of
U.S. citizenship for new voter registrations. The boards of election
require applicants for voter registration to provide a driver's license
number or the last four digits of their social security number, but
neither number proves U.S. citizenship because driver's licenses will
now be issued to illegal immigrants and social security numbers are
available to noncitizen immigrants who are in the United States with a
temporary work visa or noncitizen permanent residents with a "green
card."
This legislation will correct this glaring weakness in the New York
voter registration process by requiring documentation of U.S. citizen-
ship. These documentation requirements are not difficult or onerous, and
are similar to the documentation requirements that applied to new driver
license applications that apply to lawful residents.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2024: S386/A6038 Referred to Elections
2023: S386/A6038 Referred to Elections, Notice of Committee Consider-
ation, Defeated in Elections
2022: S1853/A4901 Referred to Elections
2020: S.7324/A.8625 Referred to Elections
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
The board of elections will incur additional staff and computer expense
to ensure that appropriate documents are submitted as part of the voter
registration process.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect 60 days after it becomes law, although the
state board of elections could immediately begin adopting necessary
rules and regulations to implement the provisions of the law.

Statutes affected:
S1299: 5-210 election law, 5-210(5) election law