NYS Senate Begins 2025 Legislative Session Passing Election-Related Bills
By: Joseph T. Burns
The New York State Senate once again began the year’s legislative session by passing a number of election-related bills.
Among the election proposals approved by the Senate on January 13, 2024 are:
- A bill (S.569) allowing local boards of elections, after receiving approval from the New York State Board of Elections, to establish county-wide poll sites. Under this proposal, any voter in a county, regardless of where the voter resides, would be able to vote at a county-wide poll site in an election.
- A bill (S.1030) requiring political committees with public facing web sites to place a “Paid for by” disclosure on such web site. Currently, political committees are required to place this disclosure on nearly all printed materials. This proposal passed the State Senate unanimously.
- A bill (S.1035) establishing new training requirements for county election commissioners and employees of local boards of elections. These trainings would be developed by the New York State Board of Elections and local BOE commissioners and staff would be required to participate in trainings for new commissioners and employees as well as annual trainings.
- A bill (S.1087) requiring county election commissioners outside the City of New York to be full-time county employees.
The Senate on Monday also defeated a proposal put forward by Sen. Mark Walczyk, the Ranking Minority Member of the Senate Elections Committee, to require voters to show a valid photo identification before voting.
Senators are likely to consider a number of other election-related measures as the 2025 session progresses. Among these are:
- A bill (S.752) clarifying that early mail ballots and not just absentee ballots may be returned to ballot drop boxes should a county BOE allow for ballot drop boxes.
- A bill (S.799) allowing local BOE employees to keep their BOE employment under certain conditions while running for public office.
We will continue to monitor these and other proposals under consideration by the New York State Legislature and provide updates when appropriate.
