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Sponsors
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History
- Referred to elections
- Referred to elections
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the election law, in relation to political advertisements and literature and identification of the source of certain political communications
Purpose
Relates to political advertisements and literature and identification of the source of certain political communications.
Summary of provisions
Requires political advertisements and literature to identify who pays for the communications; makes it illegal to pay for communications which intentionally misrepresent facts or make misstatements regarding a candidate or public officer.
Existing law
Adds a new section, 14-107, to the Election law.
Justification
Individual and groups pay for material to be disseminated among the public without the public being aware of who is paying for their information contained in the literature. The public has a right and need to know who is behind the creation of these communications to enable them to assess the worth of the information. In addition, current law requires persons or entities spending money to affect the outcome of an election to publicly disclose the source of the funding. Unless it is disclosed who paid for the communication, there is no way for the public to know and no way for the board of elections to pursue those who fail to file disclosure of these expenditures. This bill will mandate that these communications carry an attribution of who is paying for the literature.
The bill also requires automated phone calls which are sent into the homes of voters disclose who is paying for them. Practices in this area show that these calls are abused by those behind them. The call may state it supports a particular candidate but are sent into the home with such frequency or at inconvenient hours to annoy the voter and are really being sent in by the opponent with the intent to antagonize the voter. This fraudulent use of the communication would be stopped by requiring those paying for the call identify themselves at the beginning of the call.
The bill also penalizes those who pay for a communication to the public which intentionally misrepresents any facts or makes misstatements about a position adopted by the candidate or public official. This will help lead to integrity in the elections process.
Legislative history
S.8175 of 2008
Fiscal implications
None.
Local fiscal implications
None. EFFECTIVE DATE : Immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.