Establishes who qualifies as an authorized agent of a voter; prohibits an agent of the voter or authorized agent from receiving no more than five absentee ballots for an election; establishes penalties for failing to deliver a ballot and interfering with a voter's marking of a ballot.
S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________
10372
I N A S S E M B L Y
May 21, 2024
___________
Introduced by COMMITTEE ON RULES -- (at request of M. of A. Simon) --
read once and referred to the Committee on Election Law
AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to authorized agents of a
voter
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. The opening paragraph and paragraph (c) of subdivision 2 of
section 8-400 of the election law, the opening paragraph as amended by
chapter 746 of the laws of 2021 and paragraph (c) as amended by chapter
481 of the laws of 2023, are amended to read as follows:
A qualified voter desiring to vote at such election as an absentee
voter for any reason specified in subdivision one hereof must make
application for an absentee ballot on a form to be obtained and filed as
provided herein, by letter as provided in paragraph (d) of this subdivi-
sion, or through the electronic absentee ballot application transmittal
system pursuant to section 8-408 of this title. FOR THE PURPOSES OF
THIS SUBDIVISION AN "AGENT OF THE VOTER" OR "AUTHORIZED AGENT" SHALL
MEAN A PERSON WHO IS A CLOSE FAMILY MEMBER OF SUCH VOTER, SUCH AS A
SPOUSE, PARENT, CHILD OR SIBLING; MEMBER OF SUCH VOTER'S HOUSEHOLD; OR
HOLDING A POWER OF ATTORNEY EXECUTED BY SUCH QUALIFIED VOTER.
(c) All applications requesting an absentee ballot by mail or through
the electronic absentee ballot application transmittal system must be
received by the board of elections not later than the tenth day before
the election for which a ballot is first requested. Applications for an
absentee ballot that will be delivered in person at the board of
elections to the voter or to an agent of the voter must be received by
such board not later than the day before such election. AN AGENT OF THE
VOTER OR AUTHORIZED AGENT SHALL BE LIMITED TO RECEIVING NO MORE THAN
FIVE ABSENTEE BALLOTS FOR SUCH ELECTION.
§ 2. The opening paragraph of paragraph (a) of subdivision 2 of
section 8-408 of the election law, as amended by chapter 746 of the laws
of 2021, is amended to read as follows:
A voter, AGENT OF THE VOTER OR AUTHORIZED AGENT AS DEFINED IN SUBDIVI-
SION TWO OF SECTION 8-400 OF THIS TITLE, shall be able to apply for an
EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
Open Legislation is a forum for New York State legislation. All comments are subject to review and community moderation is encouraged.
Comments deemed off-topic, commercial, campaign-related, self-promotional; or that contain profanity, hate or toxic speech; or that link to sites outside of the nysenate.gov domain are not permitted, and will not be published. Attempts to intimidate and silence contributors or deliberately deceive the public, including excessive or extraneous posting/posts, or coordinated activity, are prohibited and may result in the temporary or permanent banning of the user. Comment moderation is generally performed Monday through Friday. By contributing or voting you agree to the Terms of Participation and verify you are over 13.
Create an account. An account allows you to sign petitions with a single click, officially support or oppose key legislation, and follow issues, committees, and bills that matter to you. When you create an account, you agree to this platform's terms of participation.