BILL NUMBER: S4602
SPONSOR: GOUNARDES
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the election law, in relation to providing a remedy for
election disruptions
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To provide a flexible remedy for local bipartisan election officials to
extend the time for balloting at impacted polling places, where an emer-
gency or other disruption to voting lasts more than 15 minutes, subject
to a decision by the Board of Elections that such remedy would be inap-
propriate or unnecessary given the particular circumstances.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one of this bill adds a new section 3-109 to the Election Law.
Subdivision one of this section creates a default statutory remedy in
the event of a poll site disruption that interrupts voting for more than
fifteen minutes. When such disruption occurs, the local board of
elections shall toll, adjust, and extend the scheduled time frame for
voting on that day by the number of minutes that were lost due to the
disruption. The "time lost for voting" will be calculated for each
impacted polling place using data and records readily within the
possession of poll site coordinators, election district chairpersons,
and the board of elections.
Where a same-day extension is administratively impracticable, perhaps
because of an especially lengthy delay, the board of elections may sche-
dule the additional voting hours for a successive election day and, as
necessary, designate an alternative nearby location as a poll site.
Paragraph (c) of subdivision 1 of section 3-109 provides that poll sites
shall use the same machines and voting systems that were in use prior to
the delay, and that original seals shall not be removed.
Subdivision two of section 3-109 provides a method by which boards of
election can override the default protocol created in subdivision one.
If boards determine that additional voting time is not needed and would
constitute inappropriate or unnecessary relief given the circumstances,
they can convene to take a public vote in a meeting which documents the
cause or nature of the delay and memorializes in writing the results of
the vote and the considerations relied upon by the board. The board must
also notify the State Board of Elections and the Civil Rights Bureau of
the NYS Attorney General of the vote, any alternative remedial action
taken by the board, and a description of all publicity efforts already
made or to be made.
Subdivision three of this section provides that, in the event that poll
hours are extended, the board shall, with the assistance of the State
Board of Elections, publicize the change. Such publication shall involve
notifying the Civil Rights Bureau of the NYS Attorney General's office,
any candidates or committees with items on the ballot, local print and
broadcast news organizations, and local nonpartisan civics organiza-
tions, including organizations that serve non-English proficient voters.
Boards must also use free or paid traditional, website, and social media
channels and networks, including official advisory tools used by local
governments. Boards must also email and text all registered voters
eligible to vote in the election who have not already done so. Such
publicity shall direct attention to any change in location of polling
places, if applicable.
Subdivision four of this section provides that an extension of poll site
hours pursuant to this act shall be dispositive and conclusive evidence
of the fact that an interruption has occurred. Any ballots cast by
voters in the extended timeframe shall not be segregated for heightened
scrutiny, nor may such ballots be challenged or disqualified on the sole
basis that such ballots were cast out of time. However, where the board
of elections fails to act in accordance with subdivision one in appro-
priate circumstances, or where the additional time for voting fails to
adequately compensate for the actual time lost for voting, eligible
voters or candidates or committees with interests on the ballot may seek
independent judicial relief for an order for additional remedial time to
vote, or for review of an adverse agency decision taken under subdivi-
sion two.
Section two of this bill makes conforming changes to subdivision two of
section 8-100 of the Election Law.
Section three of this bill adds a new subdivision 3 to section 8-102 of
the Election Law to mandate that a polling place coordinator, election
district chairperson, or inspector of election immediately notify the
local board of elections when a significant delay as described in this
act has occurred. Intentional failure to notify shall be considered a
violation of section 17-212 of Election Law.
Section four of the bill makes a conforming change to paragraph (f) of
subdivision four of section 8-600 of Election Law, which permits a board
of elections to relocate an early voting location in the narrow circum-
stance of a significant disruption to voting that renders a location
unsafe or unusable, in addition to the existing authorizations to relo-
cate an early voting location in the event of a disaster or state of
emergency.
Section five of the bill sets the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
New York State has made many reforms in recent years to expand access to
voting, protect voter rights, improve transparency in election adminis-
tration, and shore up confidence in democratic institutions, including
the creation of early voting, consolidation of state and federal prima-
ries, voter preregistration, improvements in the absentee balloting
process, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act, and more. Our considerable
progress in this arena is undercut, however, by the fact that we have no
rapid response solution to address natural or human-caused incidents
that interrupt voting at poll sites.
Section 3-108 of Election Law, one of few sections of state law to
contemplate this scenario, allows local or state boards of elections to
schedule an additional day of voting in the event of a "fire, earth-
quake, tornado, explosion, power failure, act of sabotage, enemy attack
or other disaster" and where less than 25% of registered voters city or
countywide have voted. Additionally, subdivision four of § 8-600 of the
Election Law mandates that polling places be open for eight hours each
day of early voting, and one could argue that a failure to adjust for a
disruption which truncates these eight hours is a violation of the law.
There are four very real problems with the existing protections of §
3-108 and 8-600, however. Firstly, there a number of modern-day scenar-
ios which can feasibly impact voting and fall outside of the narrow
definition of disasters described in Election Law § 3-108: unreasonably
long lines, medical emergencies, bomb threats, inaccessible facilities,
lengthy or large-scale connectivity or equipment malfunctions, flooding
due to a superstorm or torrential downpour, acts of violence, false fire
alarms, and localized emergencies, to name a few. All of these phenomena
have become common in an era of increasingly extreme weather events for
which we are ill-prepared, as well as an era of rising political
violence and polarization. Real-life examples of poll site disruptions
in recent years include: a 2022 bomb threat targeting the Jackie Robin-
son Educational Complex in Manhattan's East Harlem neighborhood, which
robbed general election voters of at least two hours of early voting
while the NYPD evacuated the area; a polling place fire in the town of
Champion in Jefferson County during the 2022 primary election; and, most
recently, in October 2023, a technological malfunction affecting e-poll
books that canceled voting on a Saturday morning at every polling
station in Orange County. Notably, both Hurricane Sandy and the terror-
ist attacks of September 11th, 2001, happened on election days.
Secondly, the provisions of Election Law § 3-108 apply only if at least
a quarter of voters city or countywide have not turned out, leaving
broad incentive for bad actors to target a few key election districts in
a close election. Thirdly, § 3-108 only permits boards to provide an
additional day of voting, failing to contemplate shorter disruptions
that do not warrant an additional day but nonetheless suppress turnout.
And finally, both § 3-108 and 8-600 require local boards of election to
proactively take action to remedy disruptions, which they have little
incentive to do when at least one party definitionally stands to benefit
from lower voter turnout. Instead, boards typically deadlock along
partisan lines - leaving enforcement of these core tenets of Election
Law to election lawyers, who rush to the courthouse seeking judicial
orders and praying they get them in time.
This bill addresses the disincentive that partisan boards of elections
have to extend voting hours by creating a default statutory remedy for
disruptions of more than fifteen minutes. Once notified of an inter-
ruption affecting voting, boards would be required to toll and extend
the time of the interruption on the back end of that same day, or extend
the hours for a different day if necessary. They would then be required
to publicize the new hours and any change in location, if applicable,
using broadcast and print news, social media, official local government
communication channels, and via email and text to all affected regis-
tered voters who have not yet voted. Boards would be able to override
this default protocol, however, by convening to take a public vote if
they believe that this remedy is inappropriate or unnecessary. They
would need to notify the State Board of Elections and Civil Rights
Bureau of the State Attorney General of the vote, and would need to
publicly document the nature and cause of the disruption as well as the
reasoning that they arrived at in determining that an hours extension is
unnecessary.
When the e-poll book glitch shuttered every polling site in Orange Coun-
ty, voters were issued neither emergency paper ballots nor provisional
ballots by which to "fail-safe" vote. While some local party officials
requested an extender, no additional time was granted by the board of
elections. Despite the fact that the local board had ample time to
advertise extended hours, they took no steps to account for the lost
time. Instead, voters were advised to wait indefinitely until the poll
site again became operative, or to come back later at an unspecified
time. It is to this date unknown how many voters simply failed to reap-
pear.
This bill fixes the political problem that prevents local boards from
extending hours at poll sites while disincentivizing bad actors who wish
to target certain segments of the electorate to suppress a vote. It
provides an objective, evenly applied yet narrowly tailored default
remedy that will automatically ensure a significant disruption at a poll
site does not wind up robbing the electorate of their ability to exer-
cise a basic civil right.
The remedy of a time extender is already familiar to election officials,
campaign counsel, and voter protection advocates across the country and
is routinely sought and granted by judges where appropriate. But rather
than squander critical additional time and resources awaiting judicial
intervention, this relief can be provided automatically, in real time,
based on information readily available to elections personnel. It is a
common sense solution to address unanticipated incidents that, by design
or happenstance, serve to distort electoral outcomes and infringe upon
civil rights.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2024: S7856 - Died in Elections
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
TBD
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

Statutes affected:
S4602: 8-102 election law, 8-600 election law, 8-600(4) election law