What's happening
This bill requires county legislative bodies to automatically approve political party recommendations for election commissioners.
Why it matters
Shifts appointment power. The bill removes the ability of county legislative bodies to reject or delay political party recommendations for election commissioners, centralizing appointment authority with the parties themselves.
Reduces local discretion. By mandating automatic approval, local lawmakers lose oversight or input on who becomes an election commissioner, potentially reducing checks on party nominations.
May impact election administration. This could increase partisanship in local election offices, as commissioners would be appointed exclusively at the will of party leaders, with no recourse for local objections or broader community input.
Streamlines the process. The amendment eliminates previous procedural delays and disputes over appointments, intending to make the filling of these positions faster and more predictable for political parties.
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Who cares
County legislatures and New York City Council
The bill would require them to automatically approve party recommendations for elections commissioners.
Political parties
Their recommended commissioners would receive automatic approval rather than face the existing appointment deadlines and fallback procedures.
Legislators affiliated with recommending parties
The bill would remove their authority to appoint commissioners when the full legislative body fails to act or their party fails to submit a timely recommendation.
Prospective elections commissioners
Party-recommended candidates would no longer face the existing 30-day wait before fallback appointment procedures become available.
Headline styles
Automatically Approve Election Appointees
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to election law
- Referred to election law
Full text
1 pageUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
3180
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 28, 2019
Introduced by M. of A. PRETLOW -- read once and referred to the Committee on Election Law
AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to the appointment of commissioners of elections
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Subdivision 4 of section 3-204 of the election law, as amended by chapter 116 of the laws of 2010, is amended to read as follows:
4. Commissioners of [election] elections shall be appointed by the county legislative body, or in the city of New York, by the city council. Provided, however, that [if a legislative body shall fail to appoint any person recommended by a party for appointment as a commissioner pursuant to this section, within thirty days after the filing of a certificate of recommendation with such legislative body, then the members of such legislative body who are members of the political party which filed such certificate may appoint such person. And further provided, if there are no members of the legislative body who are members of the political party which filed such certificate, the appointment shall take effect upon the expiration of thirty days from the date that the certificate was filed. If none of the persons named in any of the certificates filed by a party are so appointed within sixty days after the filing of any such certificate, then such party may file another certificate within thirty days after the expiration of any such sixty day period recommending a different person for such appointment. If a party fails to file a certificate within the time prescribed by this section, the members of the legislative body who are members of such party may appoint any eligible person to such office] the legislative body shall automatically approve any recommendations for commissioners of elections by a party.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06550-01-9
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.