Senate Bill S591A

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S591A

 TITLE OF BILL :

An act to amend the election law, in relation to requiring the state
to assume the cost of purchasing ballots for general elections,
special elections and primaries

 PURPOSE :

This bill relieves one of the expenditures associated with general,
primary, and special elections in New York State by authorizing the
New York State Board of Elections to develop methods for the purpose
of the state reimbursing counties for the cost of purchasing election
ballots.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

Section 1. Section 4-136 of the election law is amended by adding a
new subdivision 4 to read as follows:  Notwithstanding the provisions
of subdivision two of this section or any other law to the contrary,
the state shall assume the cost of purchasing ballots for all general
elections and primaries. The New York state board of elections shall
develop procedures to reimburse counties that purchase ballots and/or
to provide the ballots to be used by each county.

              

§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.

 EXISTING LAW :

There is nothing currently on record that makes the state responsible
for paying any cost associated with elections. The counties and/or
municipalities are responsible for cost associated with elections.

 JUSTIFICATION :

The Help America Vote Act of 2002 is a United States federal law which
passed in the House 357-48 and 92-2 in the Senate.  It was signed into
law by President Bush on October 29, 2002. The reaction to the
controversy surrounding the 2000 U.S. presidential election between
George Bush and Al Gore had determined the need for HAVA. This act
would eventually lead to replacing the punch-card and lever-based
voting systems.

HAVA mandates that all states and localities upgrade many aspects of
their election procedures, including their voting machines,
registration processes and poll worker training. The specifics of
implementation have been left up to each state, which allows for
varying interpretations of the Federal law.

New York Counties were mandated to move away from the conventional
Lever Voting Machines to a more sophisticated way to vote. Local
governments were informed the new scanning machines would be easier to
use, better and more reliable, while also providing the Board of
Elections a way to verify votes using paper ballots' if a recount was
necessary. Counties spent months looking at different types of scanner
to determine which would most appropriate meet their needs.

Unfortunately, when the change over actually took place the true cost
of these machines began to be apparent. Although the Lever Machines
could be stored almost anywhere, the new Scanner Voting Machines would
need to be placed in climate controlled storage for fear of damaging
the electronics. The Lever Machines had relatively inexpensive rolls
of paper that could be easily removed and the votes would then be
physically counted. The Scanner Voting Machines on the other hand have

expensive individual ballots which are used to scan the citizens vote
while at the same time storing the paper ballot.

The problem with most elections are the cost associated with them.
County Commissioner's representing B.O.E.'s from all 62 counties are
mandated to purchase enough ballots for all registered voters. In
other words, they can not estimate how many voters will participate so
they are charged with purchasing enough ballots to cover 100% of all
registered voters. They have but two places where the ballots can be
printed and purchased. The cost vary depending on the county but the
range has been anywhere from 42 cents to 57 cents and higher per
ballot. They are Phoenix Graphics and Fort Orange Press. Once the
election is finished, all unused ballots will held for four months and
then be discarded.

The counties in New York State are struggling to keep taxes at a
minimum even though the cost of doing business continues to rise. The
cost of holding elections are substantial to say the least. With this
bill, counties will continue to absorb much of cost associated with
elections such as; cost for storage and maintenance of the machines,
B.O.E. personnel and Pol Watchers who manage the polling places on
election day. This bill will help to alleviate only a portion of the
total cost.

This bill could relieve some of the cost associated with elections by
New York State assuming the cost of purchasing the ballots to be used
in all general elections and primaries. The New York State Board of
Elections would develop a method to reimburse counties that purchase
ballots or provided the ballots to be used in each county.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

Latimer, 2014- REFERRED TO ELECTIONS
Latimer, 2015- 16 REFERRED TO ELECTIONS

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

To be determined

 LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

To be determined

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This bill shall take effect immediately