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Who cares
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Sponsors
Senator · Senate District 4
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to elections
- Referred to elections
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:S1653
Title of bill
An act to amend the election law, in relation to publicly releasing ballot images
Purpose or general idea of bill
This legislation would require the Board of Elections to make the images of ballots available for public scrutiny
Summary of specific provisions
Section 1. Adds a new section to the election law § 7-131.
Section 2. Effective Date
Justification
The purpose of this bill will allow the public to view ballot images, not the actual ballot, to ensure that votes are properly counted. Ballot transparency is necessary to protect the sanctity of the vote. Electronic scanners already take photographic images of the ballots as each ballot is counted. However, these machines can make mistakes if citizens do not fill out the ballot as directed. Most importantly, this bill would not allow the original ballots to be shared or handled by the public and it would conceal the identity of all voters.
Candidates and citizens can feel confident each vote is appropriately accounted for by allowing the ballot images to be open for inspection. In close elections, the few stray votes that are miscounted by the electronic scanner may change the outcome of an election.
Prior legislative history
New Bill.
Fiscal implications
Minimal to the state.
Effective date
Immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.