Requires a board of elections in a county with over ten thousand active registered voters to employ a minimum of four full-time employees which may include the commissioner and deputies if such positions are full time.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A6069A
SPONSOR: Hunter TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the election law, in relation to establishing minimum
staffing levels for certain 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:
Section one of the bill would amend section 3-300 of the election law to
require boards of elections to employ a minimum of 4 full time employees
and employ an additional 2 employees for every 20,000 active registered
voters.
Section two would establish the effective date.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ORIGINAL AND AMENDED VERSION (IF APPLICABLE):
The a-print amendments would include full-time commissioners and full-
time deputies,in the required number of full-time employees. The amend-
ments would also apply to a county that includes over ten thousand
active registered voters and remove the provision of beyond forty thou-
sand active voters. Additionally, boards of elections would be required
to hire two additional full-time employees annually within three years
of the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
Voting is a part of an individual's civic duty. Participation in poli-
tical discourse' and elections has 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, a permanent no-fault absentee ballot program.
Many boards of elections currently rely on a mix of full time employees
and temporary employees a full time staff who 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 structure already comply with this
legislation. This 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
as required by this legislation.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2023-24: A1258A
2021-22: A7780A
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6069--A
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 26, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. HUNTER, RAMOS, WOERNER, ZINERMAN, PAULIN,
GALLAGHER, LUNSFORD, REYES, DE LOS SANTOS, SHRESTHA, McMAHON, KELLES,
BICHOTTE HERMELYN, LUPARDO, TAYLOR, TAPIA, ROSENTHAL, SAYEGH, SIMONE,
DAVILA -- read once and referred to the Committee on Election Law --
recommitted to the Committee on Election Law in accordance with Assem-
bly Rule 3, sec. 2 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered
reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to establishing minimum
staffing levels for certain local board of elections
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 3-300 of the election law is amended to read as
2 follows:
3 § 3-300. Board employees; appointment. 1. Every board of elections
4 shall appoint, and at its pleasure remove, clerks, voting machine tech-
5 nicians, custodians and other employees, fix their number, prescribe
6 their duties, fix their titles and rank and establish their salaries
7 within the amounts appropriated therefor by the local legislative body
8 and shall secure in the appointment of employees of the board of
9 elections equal representation of the major political parties.
10 2. Every board of elections of a county that includes over ten thou-
11 sand active registered voters shall employ, at a minimum, four full-time
12 employees inclusive of any full-time commissioners and full-time depu-
13 ties. Every board of elections shall employ two additional employees for
14 every full allotment of twenty thousand active registered voters under
15 its jurisdiction. Any board of elections below the minimum number of
16 employees required by this subdivision shall hire two additional full-
17 time employees annually until the minimum requirement is met, provided
18 that the minimum requirement is met within three years of the effective
19 date of this subdivision.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03492-02-6
A. 6069--A 2
1 3. Every commissioner in each board of elections except for commis-
2 sioners of the board of elections of the city of New York, may approve
3 and at pleasure remove a deputy, establish [his] their title and
4 prescribe [his] their duties. In the city of New York, the board of
5 elections shall appoint an executive director and a deputy executive
6 director whose duties it shall be to supervise the operations of the
7 board of elections under the supervision of such board.
8 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
