Senate Bill S7144

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S7144

SPONSOR: KAVANAGH
 
TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the election law, in relation to
requiring the board of elections or a bipartisan committee to conduct a
risk-limiting audit of voter verifiable audit records

 
PURPOSE:

To require the State Board of Elections to improve the reliability of
postelection audits to limit the risk of certifying an incorrect
outcome.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Election Law 59-211 is amended by requiring the New York State Board of
Elections or a bipartisan committee to conduct a risk-limiting audit of
voter verifiable audit records after elections. The Board of Elections
shall promulgate regulations for the use of risk-limiting audits and
such regulations shall makes use of statistical methods and be designed
to limit the risk of certifying an incorrect outcome.
              

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Post-election audits are intended to ensure the accuracy of results by
checking a portion of the paper ballots against electronic vote tallies.
Under current law, three percent of voting machines are audited in every
race. However, this minimal standard is widely recognized to be too lax
to verify results in close elections. The only other method for verify-
ing results in close elections in current law is a full recount.

This bill does away with the three percent standard and replaces it with
new regulations that would verify the outcome of elections with a high
degree of reliability and limited cost. In place of the three percent
standard, the number of voting records selected to be audited would be
based on a formula determined by the bipartisan State Board of Elections
before the election. In elections in which a small margin separated the
apparent winner from the other candidates, more ballots would be audit-
ed; in elections with a wide margin fewer ballots would be audited.

This method, known as a "risk-limiting audit," has several major bene-
fits. First, it decreases the chances of a candidate being declared the
winner improperly. This both increases voters' confidence in election
results and minimizes the probability of a candidate who should have
lost an election assuming office due to voting machines being hacked, or
otherwise tampered with, or malfunctioning. In addition to increasing
accuracy, risk-limiting audits also improve efficiency by allocating
resources where they are needed to ensure the integrity of the results
and reducing wasteful spending on audits that have little or no chance
of altering the result. Lastly, risk-limiting audits reduce post-elec-
tion partisan fighting by ensuring that the vote tallies are thoroughly
vetted automatically in races where the losing candidate might otherwise
question the results or call for a recount.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New Bill

 
FISCAL IMPACT ON THE STATE:
Some costs associated with the development and implementation of the
regulations required by this legislation.

 
FISCAL IMPACT ON LOCALITIES:

Some increases in costs associated with performing more thorough audits
in close races, offset by a reduction in costs in elections with a wider
margin of victory where fewer ballots will be audited.

 
IMPACT ON REGULATION OF BUSINESSES AND INDIVIDUALS:

None

 
IMPACT ON FINES, IMPRISONMENT, FORFEITURE OF RIGHTS, OR OTHER PENAL
SANCTIONS:

None

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have
become law and shall apply to any election held 180 days or more after
it shall have taken effect; provided that the state board of elections
is authorized to immediately adopt, amend and promulgate such rules and
regulations as may be necessary and desirable to effectuate the purposes
of this act.