Bill Text: NY A10994 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Directs the state board of elections to implement a ballot tracking system for use by absentee ballot voters to track the status of their ballots; directs that funding be provided from the Help America Vote Act Implementation Account.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-09-09 - referred to election law [A10994 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-A10994-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          10994

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    September 9, 2020
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  COMMITTEE  ON  RULES  -- (at request of M. of A. Walker,
          Peoples-Stokes) -- read once and referred to the Committee on Election
          Law

        AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation  to  directing  the  state
          board  of  elections  to implement a ballot tracking system for use by
          absentee ballot voters to track the status of their ballots

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1.  The election law is amended by adding a new section 8-414
     2  to read as follows:
     3    § 8-414. Absentee ballots; tracking of. 1. Not later than July  first,
     4  two  thousand twenty-one, the state board of elections shall implement a
     5  ballot tracking system that registered voters can utilize to  track  the
     6  status  of  absentee  ballots.  Such system shall track absentee ballots
     7  utilizing voter roll data from the state and the  United  States  Postal
     8  Services'  Intelligent  Mail Barcode data specific to election mail. The
     9  state board of elections shall make the ballot tracking system available
    10  for use by each county board. Such system shall  be  accessible  to  the
    11  general public through a clearly designated webpage or link on the state
    12  board  of  elections'  website and through a link on the website of each
    13  county board.
    14    2. (a) The ballot tracking system shall enable a registered  voter  to
    15  search  for  information  on the status of his or her absentee ballot by
    16  entering the voter's name, the address at which the voter  is  qualified
    17  to  vote  and a valid personal identification number (PIN). Data entered
    18  to search for the ballot status must  match  the  data  on  the  voter's
    19  absentee ballot application.
    20    (b) Voters wishing to track the status of their absentee ballots shall
    21  register  with  the ballot tracking system using the data on the voter's
    22  absentee ballot application. Each voter registered with the system shall
    23  create an individual PIN.
    24    3. The ballot tracking system shall display the status of the  voter's
    25  absentee ballot, including:

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD17173-03-0
        A. 10994                            2

     1    (a)  notification  that the county board received the voter's applica-
     2  tion for an absentee ballot;
     3    (b)  the  date  the  absentee ballot was provided to the United States
     4  Post Office for delivery to the voter;
     5    (c) the address to which the absentee ballot was sent;
     6    (d) the date, based on  information  from  the  United  States  Postal
     7  Service,  that  the  voter's  ballot  is expected to be delivered to the
     8  voter;
     9    (e) a notification if the voter's ballot is returned as  undeliverable
    10  to the county board by the United States Postal Service;
    11    (f)  if  the completed absentee ballot has been received by the county
    12  board, a notification that the county board received it; and
    13    (g) a notification that the voter's completed ballot has been counted,
    14  or, if the ballot cannot be counted, a notification of  the  reason  why
    15  the  ballot  could not be counted and instructions of any steps that the
    16  voter can take in order to have the ballot counted.
    17    4. Funding for the implementation  of  the  absentee  ballot  tracking
    18  system  shall  be provided to the state board of elections from the Help
    19  America Vote Act Implementation Account.
    20    5. As used in this section "county board" means the board of elections
    21  of the county or city in which the applicant for an absentee ballot is a
    22  qualified voter.
    23    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.