Senate Elections Committe Hearing on 2009 Elections

Senate Elections  Committee To Hold New York City Hearing To Review The 2009 Elections

Hearing will focus on pilot program use of optical scan voting machines and proposals to end wasteful and expensive primary runoffs.

Today, the Senate Elections Committee will hold a hearing intended to continue the Committee’s examination of the election process and ways to improve that process.  The hearing will seek comments on the administration of the 2009 elections and the pilot program for new voting systems, as well as proposals to reduce unnecessary expenses and election result delays by ending primary runoff elections and replacing them with instantaneous runoff voting.
 
The Elections Committee will hear comments on legislation intended to improve the voting process going forward, including legislation sponsored by both the Committee’s Chair, Senator Addabbo, and Senator Perkins (S6248), which eliminates runoff elections in New York City and elsewhere. This year, less than eight percent of registered Democrats, and less than three percent of New York City residents, voted in primary runoff elections.  The cost to taxpayers: $15 million.
 
Thursday’s hearing will mark the continuation of a series of hearings dedicated to increasing the public’s awareness of voting and election administration issues.  These state-wide hearings, which began in April and continued in May, June and October covered a diverse array of topics including; voter registration; voting/casting a ballot and poll-sites; and campaign finance reform. 

The hearing will be broadcast live at www.livestream.com/nysenate.
Questions about the hearing may be directed to Allison Kelrick at: akelrick@gmail.com.