Enacts the "voting integrity and verification act of New York (VIVA NY)"; provides that each voter is entitled to the use of an individual, voter verifiable paper ballot of the voter's vote and the opportunity to mark it.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A6287
SPONSOR: Cunningham TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the election law, in relation to enacting the "voting
integrity and verification act of New York (VIVA NY)"
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To give voters the option, at every polling place, to mark a paper
ballot by hand or with a nontabulating ballot marking device. To change
the phrase "polling place" to "election district" in two statutes
requiring identical ballots in every polling place because ballots may
not be able to be identical in every election district in a polling
place due to differing contests or ballot proposals on the ballot. This
bill would guarantee that all voters can verify the selections on their
ballots. BUMNARY OF PROVISIONS: Section 1 provides that this act shall
be known and may be cited as the "Voting Integrity and Verification Act
of New York" (VIVA NY).
Section 2 adds new subdivisions 40 and 41 to section 1-104 of the
election law, which define the terms "nontabulating ballot marking
device" and "human readable paper ballot."
Section 3 replaces the term "polling place" with "election district" in
subdivision 26 of section 7-104 of the election law. The same subdivi-
sion requires all voters to be given a choice to mark a paper ballot in
their polling place either by hand or by using a nontabulating ballot
marking device that prints a human readable ballot.
Section 4 replaces the term "polling place" with "election district" in
subdivision 3 of section 7-106 of the election law.
Section 5 provides that voting machines or systems purchased prior to
the effective date of the bill may continue to be used and maintained if
they are designed and constructed to utilize individual, voter-verifia-
ble paper ballots.
Section 6 provides for an immediate effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
Election experts agree that voters who are able to mark a ballot by hand
must retain that option.Paper ballots are the gold standard when it
comes to voting technology. To provide our voters with confidence that
their cast ballot will unquestionably and accountably reflect their
preference and only their preference, New York has instituted many
common sense reforms, like insisting on individual, durable, voter-veri-
fiable paper ballots that allow voters to cast their votes privately and
independently, even if counted by computerized vote tabulation systems.
We live in a time when many voters harbor suspicion about the accuracy
of vote counting. Requiring the use of the best available voting tech-
nology may ameliorate that,while saving New York taxpayers considerable
amounts of money. All voting machines currently in use that utilize the
paper ballots required by this bill may continue to be used and main-
tained, resulting in little or no cost for localities to comply with the
new law.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2023-24: A5934C - amended thrice and recommitted to election law
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
Compared to the voting machines this bill would prohibit, the voting
machines this bill would require cost far less ($6,800 vs. $11,500
each). Compared to the voting machines this bill would prohibit, the
voting machines this bill would require can accommodate many more voters
per machine (4,000 vs. 450 voters per machine pursuant to SBOE regu-
lations). Therefore, by passing this bill, the potential cost savings to
localities on the purchase of new voting machines is estimated to be at
least $250 million statewide or $100 million for the City of New York
alone.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately upon passage, except that voting machines and systems
purchased prior to the effective date of this legislation may continue
to be used and maintained if they are designed and constructed to
utilize individual, voter-verifiable paper ballots.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6287
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 3, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. CUNNINGHAM, ANDERSON, PAULIN, SHIMSKY, SEPTIMO,
CRUZ, DE LOS SANTOS, SAYEGH, R. CARROLL, EPSTEIN, WOERNER, STECK,
SHRESTHA, SIMONE, LEVENBERG, DINOWITZ, JACKSON, SIMON, TAPIA,
BICHOTTE HERMELYN, MAMDANI, CHANDLER-WATERMAN, TAYLOR, JACOBSON, DAVI-
LA, GALLAGHER, COLTON -- read once and referred to the Committee on
Election Law
AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to enacting the "voting
integrity and verification act of New York (VIVA NY)"
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "voting
2 integrity and verification act of New York (VIVA NY)".
3 § 2. Section 1-104 of the election law is amended by adding two new
4 subdivisions 40 and 41 to read as follows:
5 40. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the term "nontabulat-
6 ing ballot marking device" means a voting machine that cannot and does
7 not count or transmit votes and does not retain any official record of
8 the voters' selections, but can mark or print voters' selections and
9 have those selections printed on an individual, voter verifiable paper
10 ballot.
11 41. The term "human readable paper ballot" means a paper ballot where
12 all the candidates, ballot proposals and selections that could be tabu-
13 lated are readable without assistance, other than eyeglasses or other
14 standard personal vision enhancing devices.
15 § 3. Subdivision 26 of section 7-104 of the election law, as added by
16 chapter 411 of the laws of 2019, is amended to read as follows:
17 26. All paper ballots of the same kind for the same [polling place]
18 election district shall be identical. Each voter voting in a polling
19 place is entitled to the use of an individual, voter verifiable paper
20 ballot of the voter's vote and the opportunity to mark it privately and
21 independently. For the purposes of this title, the term "individual,
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD04096-01-5
A. 6287 2
1 voter verifiable paper ballot" means a human readable paper ballot that
2 is either (a) marked by the voter by hand; or (b) marked through the use
3 of a nontabulating ballot marking device. Voters shall have both options
4 in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this subdivision available in every polling
5 place.
6 § 4. Subdivision 3 of section 7-106 of the election law, as amended by
7 chapter 411 of the laws of 2019, is amended to read as follows:
8 3. All paper ballots of the same kind for the same [polling place]
9 election district shall be identical.
10 § 5. Voting machines and systems purchased prior to the effective date
11 of this act may continue to be used and maintained if they are designed
12 and constructed to utilize individual, voter-verifiable paper ballots.
13 § 6. This act shall take effect immediately.
