STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
1115--A
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 7, 2021
___________
Introduced by M. of A. PAULIN, GALEF, ABINANTI, DICKENS, GOTTFRIED,
PICHARDO, REYES, J. RIVERA, SAYEGH, MONTESANO, SIMON, DeSTEFANO, COOK,
EPSTEIN, KELLES, McDONALD, WOERNER, L. ROSENTHAL, LUPARDO, JACKSON,
RAJKUMAR, FORREST, CARROLL, BURDICK, DINOWITZ, BICHOTTE HERMELYN,
THIELE, ENGLEBRIGHT, JACOBSON, FAHY, DURSO, GALLAGHER, MAMDANI,
NORRIS, TAGUE, BURGOS, DE LA ROSA, ANDERSON, BRABENEC, TAYLOR,
BARRETT, McDONOUGH -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. MIKULIN -- read
once and referred to the Committee on Election Law -- committee
discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted
to said committee
AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to construction of and
requirements for voting machines and systems
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraphs b, e, j, s and t of subdivision 1 of section
2 7-202 of the election law, as added by chapter 181 of the laws of 2005,
3 are amended and five new paragraphs u, v, w, x and y are added to read
4 as follows:
5 b. permit a voter to vote for any person for any office, whether or
6 not nominated as a candidate by any party or independent body without
7 the ballot, or any part thereof, being removed from the machine at any
8 time after the ballot is cast;
9 e. [provide the voter an opportunity to privately and independently
10 verify votes selected and the] require the use of an individual, dura-
11 ble, voter-verifiable paper ballot of the voter's vote that shall be
12 privately and independently marked in the polling place and made avail-
13 able for private and independent inspection and verification by the
14 voter before the voter's vote is cast and counted, and provide for the
15 voter's ability to privately and independently change such votes or
16 correct any error before the ballot is cast and counted;
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02135-13-1
A. 1115--A 2
1 j. [retain all paper ballots cast or produce and retain a voter veri-
2 fied permanent paper record which shall be presented to the voter from
3 behind a window or other device before the ballot is cast,] produce and
4 retain a paper ballot which can be verified and cast by the voter in a
5 manner intended and designed to protect the privacy of the voter,
6 including storing the ballots cast in random order and not sequentially
7 or chronologically as cast by voters; such ballots [or record] shall
8 allow a manual audit and shall be preserved in accordance with the
9 provisions of section 3-222 of this chapter;
10 s. permit alternative language accessibility pursuant to the require-
11 ments of section 203 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C.
12 1973aa-1a) such that it must have the capacity to display the full
13 ballot in the alternative languages required by the federal Voting
14 Rights Act if such voting machine or system is to be used where such
15 alternative languages are required or where the local board deems such
16 feature necessary; [and]
17 t. not include any device or functionality potentially capable of
18 externally transmitting or receiving data via the internet or via radio
19 waves or via other wireless means[.];
20 u. be constructed so that, after the paper ballot is cast by the
21 voter, the voting machine or system never passes the cast ballot under a
22 printer that can print votes onto the ballot, including as a result of
23 unauthorized, malicious or faulty software or firmware, provided that
24 machines purchased prior to June first, two thousand twenty-one may
25 continue to be used;
26 v. be constructed so the configuration or functionality of a voting
27 machine or system does not include ballot marking and tabulating within
28 the same physical device, provided that machines purchased prior to June
29 first, two thousand twenty-one may continue to be used;
30 w. not utilize, for the process of vote casting and canvassing, a bar
31 code, matrix code or any kind of recording code that cannot be verified
32 by the voter without using a code-reading device;
33 x. permit the counting of ballots by hand or permit the reading of
34 ballots with an optical character recognition device; and
35 y. use durable paper ballots printed and manufactured in the United
36 States that are not printed on thermal paper.
37 § 2. Subdivision 4 of section 7-202 of the election law, as added by
38 chapter 181 of the laws of 2005, is amended to read as follows:
39 4. Local boards of elections which obtain voting machines pursuant to
40 this chapter [may determine to] shall purchase [direct recording elec-
41 tronic machines or] optical scan machines in conformance with the
42 requirements of this chapter.
43 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
