Senate Bill S3396

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S3396

SPONSOR: GOUNARDES
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the education law, in relation to requiring SUNY and
CUNY institutions to award course credit to students who serve as
election inspectors, poll clerks or election coordinators

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

To incentivize greater civic participation among college students as
well as address New York's critical shortage of poll workers by granting
SUNY and CUNY students course credit for working at polling sites during
elections

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section one of the bill adds a new subdivision 22 to section 355 of the
Education Law to provide that SUNY shall consult with boards of
elections to adopt a policy requiring that each SUNY campus grant course
credit to students for their service as an election inspector, poll
              

clerk, or election coordinator at a polling site in this state.  The
policy shall include a verification procedure for students claiming
credit.

Section two of the bill adds a new subdivision 24 to section 6206 of the
Education Law to provide that CUNY shall consult with boards of
elections to adopt a policy requiring that each CUNY campus grant course
credit to students for their service as an election inspector, poll
clerk, or education coordinator at a polling site in this state.  The
policy shall include a verification procedure for students claiming
credit.

Section three sets the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

New York's public university systems, the State University of New York
(SUNY) and City University of New York (CUNY), have always sought to
encourage greater civic participation among their student populations
through initiatives such as the CUNY Civic Engagement Internship
Program, which provides paid opportunities for students who gather
information and analyze data for city government, or the SUNY All-In
Democracy Challenge, wherein campuses develop civic plans for candidate
forums, local voter registration drives, naturalization ceremonies for
new citizens, and a plan to join local boards of organizations.  Addi-
tionally, SUNY and CUNY have historically played a pivotal role in host-
ing local elections, with CUNY offering up nine of their campuses to
serve as early voting and Election Day polling places in the 2020 presi-
dential election. Further, as part of the FY23 Enacted Budget, the
legislature passed a policy that all colleges with 300 or more students
must include a polling place either on site or at an adjacent property,
seeking to further involve college students in the democratic process
while smoothing election administration.

At the same time, the state has continued to experience ongoing chal-
lenges with inconsistent staffing of poll workers, contributing to an
unequal voting experience across poll sites. During the 2024 general
elections, a poll site in Melrose, Bronx was equipped with only ten poll
workers and one iPad. This severely limited the site's ability to proc-
ess voters efficiently, resulting in wait times of over an hour. On the
contrary, voting sites in better resourced areas had sufficient staffing
and managed to keep wait times under 20 minutes. Additionally, there is
an ongoing language access crisis, which has been a barrier for non-
English proficient voters. At one poll site in Queens, there was no
Spanish-speaking translator, leaving Spanish-speaking voters to navigate
the ballot process without the necessary assistance. Furthermore, a
nonpartisan, multilingual Asian American Exit Poll conducted by the
Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) revealed that
nearly a quarter of Asian-speaking voters in New York City - who were
not English proficient - had no translation assistance.

This bill, which grants SUNY and CUNY students course credit for serving
as a poll worker, addresses New York State's election worker crisis
while helping to foster greater public participation among student
bodies. In directing the appropriate boards of elections to coordinate a
poll worker program with local universities, this bill seeks to provide
a direct pipeline of young and eager talent to desperately understaffed
polling stations while helping rear a civic-minded society to the bene-
fit of all New Yorkers.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2024: S4496 - Referred to Higher Education

2023: S4496 - Referred to Higher Education

2022: S9058 - Referred to Higher Education

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.