Bill Text: NY S01014 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: 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.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-03 - REFERRED TO ELECTIONS [S01014 Detail]
Download: New_York-2023-S01014-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 1014 2023-2024 Regular Sessions IN SENATE January 9, 2023 ___________ Introduced by Sens. COONEY, BROUK -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Elections 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: 1 Section 1. Subdivision 4 of section 9-208 of the election law, as 2 added by section 1 of part JJ of chapter 55 of the laws of 2020, is 3 amended to read as follows: 4 4. (a) The board of elections or a bipartisan committee appointed by 5 the board shall conduct a full manual recount of all ballots for a 6 particular contest: 7 i. Where the margin of victory is [twenty] ten votes or less; or 8 ii. Where the margin of victory is [0.5%] 0.25% or less; or 9 iii. In a contest where one million or more ballots have been cast and 10 the margin of victory is less than 5,000 votes. 11 (b) The board of elections or a bipartisan committee appointed by the 12 board shall conduct a full recount, manually or via the use of any auto- 13 mated tool authorized for such a use by the board of elections, which is 14 independent from the voting system it is being used to recount, of all 15 ballots for a particular contest where the margin of victory is less 16 than or equal to 0.5% but greater than 0.25%. 17 (c) For the purposes of this section, the term margin of victory shall 18 mean the margin between all votes cast in the entire contest following 19 the recanvass of votes. 20 [(c)] (d) Where the contest involves portions of two or more counties, 21 the margin of victory shall be determined by the state board of 22 elections based on the most recent recanvass results for the contest 23 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. LBD01912-01-3S. 1014 2 1 [(d)] (e) The result of the [manual] recount of ballots shall super- 2 sede the returns filed by the inspectors of election of the election 3 district in which the canvass was initially made. 4 (f) Any candidate who is deemed to be losing a contest by the margins 5 set forth in this subdivision shall, prior to any recount being 6 conducted, have the ability to reject a recount and concede victory of 7 such contest. 8 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.