Res. No. 1343
Resolution calling upon the New York State Legislature to pass and the Governor to sign into law legislation that would amend the State Election Law to modernize and streamline the procedures for the election night canvass and the reporting of unofficial election results.
By Council Members Brewer, Chin, Dromm, Fidler, Jackson, James, Koppell, Lander, Mendez, Palma, Sanders Jr., Seabrook, Williams, Wills, Foster, Rodriguez, Barron, Gennaro and Ulrich
Whereas, State Election Law currently requires poll workers to conduct a canvass after the close of the polls in order to ensure the integrity of the vote and to tally and report unofficial election results; and
Whereas, The Board of Elections of the City of New York employs a process for conducting this canvass whereby poll workers are required to take printouts from the ballot scanners and cut them into sections by election district, add up votes with a calculator, and manually record the totals on "return of canvass" forms; and
Whereas, This process is outdated, having been designed to comply with a law written, substantial portions of which were written before the introduction of electronic voting machines; and
Whereas, Many poll sites in New York City employ ballots scanners that read ballots of voters from multiple election districts; and
Whereas, Each ballot scanner prints out a tabulated results tape that displays the total number of votes cast on the machine for each candidate; and
Whereas, Recalculating and recording results at the poll site by election district is time consuming, unnecessarily duplicative, and increases the probability that reported results are inaccurate due to human error; and
Whereas, In recent elections in the City of New York this process has resulted in significant delays in posting unofficial election results; and
Whereas, The new electronic voting machines are also capable of automatically recording and tallying votes electronically onto portable memory devices that can be transported to police stationhouses, board of elections borough offices, or other centralized locations in order to report unofficial election results more quickly and accurately; and
Whereas, The New York State Legislature is currently considering legislation (A.10175) introduced by Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh that would amend State Election Law in order to modernize and streamline the procedures for the election night canvass and the reporting of unofficial election results by, among other things, enabling poll workers to attach the results from each ballot scanner's tabulated results tape on the return of canvass rather than recalculate and record such results by election district, and allowing each ballot scanner's portable memory device with corresponding results tape to be transported separately from other materials so that unofficial results can be transmitted to the news media and the public prior to the completion of the return of canvass; now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls upon the New York State Legislature to pass and the Governor to sign into law such legislation that would amend State Election Law to modernize and streamline the procedures for the election night canvass and the reporting of unofficial election results.
AM
LS #3491
05/24/2012