Two New Election Laws to go into Effect Today
By Yehudit Garmaise
New York state lawmakers have created and updated two new election laws, effective today, that will simplify and improve voters’ experiences in the next election in the state.
First, after an election season in which ballots were endlessly recounted, New York state now has set the requirement that automatic election recounts only will take place in extremely tight races.
For instance, in 2021, automatic recounts only will occur when the margin of victory quite small: namely: 20 or fewer votes or 0.5% or smaller.
In elections in which voters cast 1 million votes and the margins of victory that are less than 5,000 votes, recounts also will be required.
To clarify the process of voting in each county, New York lawmakers also now require the state’s Board of Elections (BOE) to post each county’s sample ballots in one centralized place on its website.