NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A5056
SPONSOR: Jacobson TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the election law, in relation to making commissioners
full time employees of boards outside the city of New York
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
This bill makes election commissioners full-time employees of county
Boards of Elections.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends Subdivision 2 and 3 of Section 3-200 of the Election
Law as follows:
Subdivision 2 is amended to provide that each county's Board of Election
commissioners shall be full-time employees of the Board.
Subdivision 3 is amended to provide that the ten commissioners of New
York City's Board of Elections shall be full time employees of the
Board.
Section 2 sets forth the effective date which is immediately.
JUSTIFICATION:
Currently, New York's county boards of elections are funded locally by
county and therefore vary widely in size, resources, and capacity. This
leads to inconsistencies and inadequacies in the administration of
elections depending on the individual county.
The Election Law in New York State is constantly changing with signif-
icant reforms in the past three years including early voting, allowing
voters to correct errors in absentee ballots and early counting of
absentee ballots. These changes require more attention to detail than
ever before. The new requirements mean that there is much more to admin-
ister and oversee. It is virtually impossible for part-time commission-
ers to keep on top of things, let alone administer the law in a proper
manner.
Requiring election commissioners to be full time employees of county
boards of elections will ensure that the boards have a greater capacity
to properly run elections in New York State. The Election Law is being
brought up to appropriate standards. By having full-time commissioners,
the county boards of elections will be able to meet the new challenges.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2021-2022: A9725 - Referred to Assembly Election Law Committee S8311 -
Passed Senate; Referred to Assembly Election Law Committee
2023-2024: A919 - Referred to Assembly Election Law Committee S611 -
Passed Senate
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
None to the State. Those counties which are bring their commissioners to
full-time status or increasing the number of commissioners will have
increased costs.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5056
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 11, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. JACOBSON, GALLAGHER, LUNSFORD, REYES, SHRESTHA,
McMAHON, BRONSON, BURKE, LAVINE, TAYLOR, PAULIN, STIRPE, TAPIA -- read
once and referred to the Committee on Election Law
AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to making commissioners
full time employees of boards outside the city of New York
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 2 of section 3-200 of the election law is
2 amended to read as follows:
3 2. (a) Each board outside the city of New York shall consist of two
4 election commissioners who shall be full time employees of such board,
5 except that the county legislative body of a county having a population
6 of more than one hundred [and] twenty thousand may, by local law,
7 increase the number of such commissioners to four, to be appointed as
8 provided in this title.
9 (b) Each of the major political parties shall be eligible to recommend
10 appointment of an equal number of commissioners.
11 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01346-01-5
