NY State Senate Bill S644

Current Bill Status - Passed Senate

Introduced
In Committee
On Floor Calendar
- Passed Senate
- Passed Assembly
Delivered to Governor
Signed/Vetoed by Governor

Your Voice

Please enter your contact information

First Name *

Last Name *

Email Address *

A valid email address is required.

Home address search or enter your address manually *

Home address is used to determine the senate district in which you reside. Your support or opposition to this bill is then shared immediately with the senator who represents you.

Optional services from the NY State Senate:

Create an account. An account allows you to officially support or oppose key legislation, sign petitions with a single click, and follow issues, committees, and bills that matter to you. When you create an account, you agree to this platform's terms of participation.

Include a custom message for your Senator? (Optional)

Enter a message to your senator. Many New Yorkers use this to share the reasoning behind their support or opposition to the bill. Others might share a personal anecdote about how the bill would affect them or people they care about.

Leave this field blank

Actions

view actions (6)

	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Jan 17, 2023	referred to election law delivered to assembly passed senate
Jan 09, 2023	ordered to third reading cal.17 reported and committed to rules
Jan 05, 2023	referred to elections

Votes

view votes

Jan 17, 2023 - floor Vote

S644

floor

Aye

Nay

Absent

Excused

Abstained

Jan 9, 2023 - Elections committee Vote

S644

committee

Aye

Nay

Aye with Reservations

Absent

Excused

Abstained

show Elections committee vote details

Elections Committee Vote: Jan 9, 2023

aye (5)

nay (2)

Jan 9, 2023 - Rules committee Vote

S644

committee

Aye

Nay

Aye with Reservations

Absent

Excused

Abstained

Co-Sponsors

S644 (ACTIVE) - Details

See Assembly Version of this Bill:: A1258
Law Section:: Election Law
Laws Affected:: Amd §3-300, El L
Versions Introduced in 2021-2022 Legislative Session:: S6684, A7780

S644 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Requires every board of elections to employ a minimum of four full time employees in addition to the appointed commissioners and two additional employees for every twenty thousand active registered voters beyond forty thousand active registered voters.

S644 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

 
BILL NUMBER: S644

SPONSOR: MANNION
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the election law, in relation to establishing minimum
staffing levels for local board of elections

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

This legislation would ensure that each local board of elections is
properly staffed with an appropriate number of employees proportional to
the number of registered voters.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

This bill would require every board of elections to employ, at a mini-
mum:

* four full time employees in addition to the appointed commissioners;
and,

* two additional employees for every full allotment of 20,000 active
registered voters beyond 40,000 active registered voters.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Voting is a part of an individual's civic duty. Participation in poli-
tical discourse and elections have increased over the past two years.
This is largely in part to the fact that New York State has taken affir-
mative action to increase voter participation and increase access to
voting.

Recent chapters allow for early voting, ballot drop boxes, and mail-in
voting. The State is also poised to adopt automatic voter registration,
same day registration, and a permanent no-fault absentee ballot program.
Many boards of elections currently rely on a combination of full-time
employees and temporary employees during election seasons. These new
programs require a full-time staff that is qualified, trained, and up to
date with current election law.

The State has assisted local boards with funding early voting initi-
atives, including, most recently, $2 million in additional funding for
Local Boards of Elections in the Adopted Budget FY 2021-2022. A majority
of local boards' current staffing structures already comply with this
legislation. This bill would ensure uniformity so that boards of
elections are equipped to handle the volume of voters in a given area.
Nothing in this law would prohibit a board of elections from hiring more
staff than is required by this legislation.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2021: S.6684-A (Mannion) - Referred to Elections.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:

To be determined.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

S644 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

 
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                    644
 
                        2023-2024 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                              January 5, 2023
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  Sen. MANNION -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
   printed to be committed to the Committee on Elections
 
 AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation  to  establishing  minimum
   staffing levels for local board of elections
 
   THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section 1. Section 3-300 of the election law is  amended  to  read  as
 follows:
   §  3-300. Board employees; appointment. Every board of elections shall
 appoint, and at its pleasure remove, clerks, voting machine technicians,
 custodians and  other  employees,  fix  their  number,  prescribe  their
 duties,  fix  their  titles and rank and establish their salaries within
 the amounts appropriated therefor by  the  local  legislative  body  and
 shall  secure  in the appointment of employees of the board of elections
 equal representation of the major political parties.    EVERY  BOARD  OF
 ELECTIONS  SHALL EMPLOY, AT A MINIMUM, FOUR FULL TIME EMPLOYEES IN ADDI-
 TION TO THE APPOINTED COMMISSIONERS.   EACH  BOARD  OF  ELECTIONS  SHALL
 EMPLOY TWO ADDITIONAL EMPLOYEES FOR EVERY FULL ALLOTMENT OF TWENTY THOU-
 SAND  ACTIVE  REGISTERED  VOTERS BEYOND FORTY THOUSAND ACTIVE REGISTERED
 VOTERS. Every commissioner in each board of elections except for commis-
 sioners of the board of elections of the city of New York,  may  approve
 and  at  pleasure remove a deputy, establish his title and prescribe his
 duties. In the city of New York, the board of elections shall appoint an
 executive director and a deputy executive director whose duties it shall
 be to supervise the operations of  the  board  of  elections  under  the
 supervision of such board.
   § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
 
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD03379-01-3

Comments

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.

The New York State Senate

senate Bill S644

Sponsored By

Current Bill Status - Passed Senate

Your Voice

Actions

Votes

Jan 17, 2023 - floor Vote

Floor Vote: Jan 17, 2023

Jan 9, 2023 - Elections committee Vote

Elections Committee Vote: Jan 9, 2023

Jan 9, 2023 - Rules committee Vote

Rules Committee Vote: Jan 9, 2023

Co-Sponsors

S644 (ACTIVE) - Details

S644 (ACTIVE) - Summary

S644 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

S644 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

Comments

senate Bill S644

Share this bill

Sponsored By

John W. Mannion

Current Bill Status - Passed Senate

Your Voice

Actions

Votes

Jan 17, 2023 - floor Vote

Floor Vote: Jan 17, 2023

Jan 9, 2023 - Elections committee Vote

Elections Committee Vote: Jan 9, 2023

Jan 9, 2023 - Rules committee Vote

Rules Committee Vote: Jan 9, 2023

Co-Sponsors

Lea Webb

S644 (ACTIVE) - Details

S644 (ACTIVE) - Summary

S644 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

S644 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

Comments