Provides that recounts of ballots conducted by the board of elections or a bipartisan committee appointed by the board can be either done manually or via the use of any automated tool authorized for such use by the board of elections, which is independent from the voting system it is being used to recount, of all ballots for a particular contest where the margin of victory is less than or equal to 0.5% but greater than 0.25%; allows for losing candidates to deny a recount before any recount is conducted.
S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________
1091
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
I N A S S E M B L Y
January 8, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. LUNSFORD, GLICK, SIMON, TAPIA, WALKER, CLARK,
TAYLOR -- read once and referred to the Committee on Election Law
AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to recounts of ballots
conducted by the board of elections or a bipartisan committee
appointed by the board
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. Subdivision 4 of section 9-208 of the election law, as
added by section 1 of part JJ of chapter 55 of the laws of 2020, para-
graphs (d) and (e) as amended by chapter 474 of the laws of 2023, is
amended to read as follows:
4. (a) The board of elections or a bipartisan committee appointed by
the board shall conduct a full manual recount of all ballots for a
particular contest:
i. Where the margin of victory is [twenty] TEN votes or less; or
ii. Where the margin of victory is [0.5%] 0.25% or less; or
iii. In a contest where one million or more ballots have been cast and
the margin of victory is less than 5,000 votes.
(b) THE BOARD OF ELECTIONS OR A BIPARTISAN COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY THE
BOARD SHALL CONDUCT A FULL RECOUNT, MANUALLY OR VIA THE USE OF ANY AUTO-
MATED TOOL AUTHORIZED FOR SUCH A USE BY THE BOARD OF ELECTIONS, WHICH IS
INDEPENDENT FROM THE VOTING SYSTEM IT IS BEING USED TO RECOUNT, OF ALL
BALLOTS FOR A PARTICULAR CONTEST WHERE THE MARGIN OF VICTORY IS LESS
THAN OR EQUAL TO 0.5% BUT GREATER THAN 0.25%.
(C) For the purposes of this section, the term margin of victory shall
mean the margin between all votes cast in the entire contest following
the recanvass of votes.
[(c)] (D) Where the contest involves portions of two or more counties,
the margin of victory shall be determined by the state board of
elections based on the most recent recanvass results for the contest
submitted by the boards of elections of the counties involved.
EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00932-01-5
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.