New York lawmakers to approve early counting of absentee ballots, expand early voting sites
ALBANY — Counting absentee ballots in New York could become a much less frustrating process in future elections thanks to a new bill slated to be approved by state lawmakers this week.
Legislation sponsored by Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) would allow valid absentee ballots to be scanned in the days before early voting begins and then tabulated on Election Day.
The measure could help avoid the weeks-long wait for results seen in some races last year as New Yorkers used mail-in ballots in record numbers due to the COVID pandemic.
A deal between the Democratic-led Senate and Assemby has also been reached on a second bill that will expand the number of early voting poll sites across the state.
“We will dramatically increase the number of early voting sites and require them to count absentees up front so that we can actually know election results in almost all cases on Election Night,” Gianaris told the Daily News.
The measures, if signed into law by Gov. Cuomo, will not take effect until next year.
Both bills were crafted in response to the maddeningly slow and drawn-out process for counting absentee ballots that clouded both the general election and primaries in the Empire State last year.
The counting of mail-in ballots didn’t begin until nearly a week after the November election since current law doesn’t allow absentee votes to be tallied until polls close.
In June 2020, at the height of the coronavirus crisis, the winners of two congressional primary races weren’t declared for nearly six weeks due to complications related to the expanded use of mail-in votes.
Gianaris’ legislation would speed up counting by allowing absentee ballots to be scanned the day before early voting begins and then tabulated beginning one hour before polls close on Election Day.
Susan Lerner, executive director of New York Common Cause, said the bill will bring New York more in line with other states where ballots can be qualified to be counted in advance.
“It makes a lot of sense,” Lerner said. “And is yet another step towards bringing our election administration fully into the 21st Century.”
The early voting bill would require every county in the state with more than 500,000 registered voters to have one poll site for every 40,000 voters. Smaller counties would have to run one poll site for every 30,000 registered voters.
“Our State Senate has come a long way towards reforming New York’s election laws, but there is more to do,” Gianaris said. “These bills will dramatically reduce the long Early Voting lines we experienced last year and ensure we won’t have to wait weeks on end to discover who wins an election.”
Lerner, while applauding the deal on both bill, also called on the Legislature to fully approve a measure that would bar election boards in the state from using “hybrid” voting machines that combine printers and scanners in one system that share the same paper path.
Advocates say the models are less secure than ballot scanners and make it hard to audit results.
“We know that these machines really are not secure and in the current confused atmosphere around our elections we need to be sure that the election technology which is used here in New York State is up to the very highest standards,” Lerner said.
The “hybrid” ban bill was passed by the Senate Wednesday, but its fate in the Assembly remained unclear as the Legislative session winds down.
“There are still two days left so anything can happen,” said Michelle Sterling, a spokeswoman for Assemblywoman Amy Paulin (D-Westchester), the lead sponsor on the bill. “She definitely pushing as hard as she can. She’s still trying.”
