Amd §4-102, El L (as proposed in S.4591-A & A.831-A)
Relates to the accessibility of congressional, senatorial, assembly and election district maps in downloadable digital file formats compatible with geographic information (GIS) software.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A605
SPONSOR: Paulin TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the election law, in relation to the accessibility of
congressional, senatorial, assembly and election district maps
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL::
The purpose of this bill is to make technical corrections Chapter 644 of
the Laws of 2022 in order to effectuate the intent of the law.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS::
Section one of this bill would amend Paragraph e of subdivision 5 of
Section 4-102 of the Election Law to expand the format in which
districts maps shall be posted on the board of elections' website to be
available in downloadable digital file formats compatible with GIS soft-
ware.
Section two would establish the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
Election district maps are only accessible to the public by viewing hard
copies at the clerk's office. For many people, that is not feasible or
practical because individuals must travel there in person and the maps
are not in a user-friendly format. The lack of transparency related to
election district maps leave voters unable to voice concerns about the
way in which election districts are created. Granting voters access to
election district maps may allow for people to suggest alternatives that
are less partisan and pressure decision makers to draw the districts
more fairly in the first place.
Chapter 344 of the Laws of 2022 requires each board of elections to
publish the appropriate election district maps on their website. These
maps would also be made available in a Shapefile format, which enables
members of the public to download the map and utilize geographic infor-
mation system (GIS) software. This chapter amendment would expand on the
types of downloadable formats that the district maps may be posted to
the board of elections' website.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY::
New bill.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS::
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE::
This bill would take effect on the same date and in the same manner as
Chapter 644 of the laws of 2022 amending the election law relating to
the accessibility of congressional, senatorial and assembly election
district maps as proposed in legislative bills numbers A.83 1A and
S.4591A takes effect.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
605
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 9, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. PAULIN -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Election Law
AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to the accessibility of
congressional, senatorial, assembly and election district maps
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraph e of subdivision 5 of section 4-102 of the
2 election law, as added by a chapter of the laws of 2022 amending the
3 election law relating to the accessibility of congressional, senatorial,
4 assembly and election district maps, as proposed in legislative bills
5 numbers S. 4591-A and A. 831-A, is amended to read as follows:
6 e. Copies of such maps shall be posted on the board of elections'
7 website. In addition, each board of elections shall make such maps
8 available in [a downloadable Shapefile format] downloadable digital file
9 formats compatible with geographic information system (GIS) software,
10 such as shapefile, geodatabase, KML, or other similar vector based GIS
11 file types.
12 § 2. This act shall take effect on the same date and in the same
13 manner as a chapter of the laws of 2022 amending the election law relat-
14 ing to the accessibility of congressional, senatorial, assembly and
15 election district maps, as proposed in legislative bills numbers S.
16 4591-A and A. 831-A, takes effect.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD04190-01-3
