Senate Bill S3798

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S3798

SPONSOR: COMRIE
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the election law, in relation to prohibiting boards of
elections from entering into certain contracts with entities that have
made any political campaign donations of any amount in the last ten
years

 
PURPOSE:

This bill will protect the integrity of the voting and electoral process
by prohibiting the state board of elections from contracting with enti-
ties that have political ties.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section one amends the election law by adding a new subdivision to
prohibit the state board of elections from contracting with entities
that have made political contributions of any amount in the past 10
              

years for the purposes of designing, managing, and processing ballots,
affidavits, petitions and any items associated with the voting and
election ballot process.

Section two establishes an immediate effective date.

 
EXISTING LAW:

Section 3-100 of the election law establishes the New York State board
of elections and explains the requirements of its membership and organ-
izations.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Recently, a Rochester-based commercial printing company with political-
interest delivered invalid mail-in ballots to voters in the borough of
Brooklyn in New York City. As a result, a great number of voters may be
ineligible to vote. It further has been found that the firm in question
has consistently made political donations to one of the two major poli-
tical parties.

Effort must be made to preserve the integrity of our electoral process
by prohibiting contractors with political-interests from managing voter
registration material and election ballots.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

N/A.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

To be determined.

 
LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

To be determined.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.