§ 3-102 — State board of elections; general powers and duties

New York § 3-102

• Jurisdiction: New York
• Law ELN: Election
• Title 1: Statewide Provisions
• Art. 3: Election Officials

Text

§ 3-102. State board of elections; general powers and duties. In\naddition to the enforcement powers and any other powers and duties\nspecified by law, the state board of elections shall have the power and\nduty to:\n 1. issue instructions and promulgate rules and regulations relating to\nthe administration of the election process, election campaign practices\nand campaign financing practices consistent with the provisions of law;\n 2. visit boards of elections, examine their procedures and records and\ndirect that any such procedures be modified in any manner consistent\nwith the provisions of this chapter;\n 3. conduct any investigation necessary to carry out the provisions of\nthis chapter, provided, however, that the state board of elections chief\nenforcement counsel, established pursuant to section 3-100 of this\narticle, shall conduct all investigations necessary to enforce the\nprovisions of this chapter;\n 4. conduct private or public hearings;\n 5. administer oaths or affirmations, subpoena witnesses, compel their\nattendance, examine them under oath or affirmation and require the\nproduction of any books, records, documents or other evidence it may\ndeem relevant or material;\n 6. confer immunity in accordance with the provisions of section 50.20\nof the criminal procedure law, in any investigation relating to any\ncrime or offense with respect to which, by express provisions of\nstatute, a competent authority is authorized to confer immunity;\nprovided, however, that such immunity shall be conferred only after the\nattorney general and appropriate district attorney are afforded the\nopportunity to be heard respecting any objections which either may have\nto the conferring thereof; and provided, further, that if either the\nattorney general or any such appropriate district attorney shall object\nto the conferring of immunity, immunity may be conferred only by\nunanimous vote of all four commissioners of the state board;\n 7. institute, or direct a board of elections to institute such\njudicial proceedings as may be necessary to enforce compliance with any\nprovision of article fourteen of this chapter or any regulation\npromulgated thereunder including, but not limited to, application, on\nnotice served upon the respondent in the manner directed by the court at\nleast six hours prior to the time of return thereon, to a justice of the\nsupreme court within the judicial district in which an alleged violation\nof any such provision or regulation occurred or is threatened, for an\norder prohibiting the continued or threatened violation thereof or for\nsuch other or further relief as the court may deem just and proper;\n 8. prepare uniform forms for the statements required by article\nfourteen of this chapter and uniform forms for use by local election\nofficials in the conduct of registration and voting; design, prepare and\nmake available to county boards of election and to such other\ninstitutions and groups as such board in its discretion shall determine\nuniform application forms for registration and enrollment, transfer of\nregistration and/or enrollment and special enrollment upon application\nfiled by mail pursuant to the provisions of section 5-210 of this\nchapter;\n 9. study and examine the administration of elections within the state\nincluding campaign financing, campaign financing reporting, and campaign\npractices;\n 9-A. (a) develop an electronic reporting system to process the\nstatements of campaign receipts, contributions, transfers and\nexpenditures required to be filed with any board of elections pursuant\nto the provisions of sections 14-102, 14-104 and 14-201 of this chapter;\n (b) prescribe the information required in the form for each statement\nto be filed;\n (c) establish an educational and training program on all reporting\nrequirements including but not limited to the electronic reporting\nprocess and make it easily and readily available to any such candidate\nor committee;\n (d) make the electronic reporting process available to any such\ncandidate or committee which is required to file or which agrees to file\nsuch statements by such electronic reporting process;\n (e) cause all information contained in such a statement filed with the\nstate board of elections which is not on such electronic reporting\nsystem to be entered into such system as soon as practicable but in no\nevent later than ten business days after its receipt by the state board\nof elections; and\n (f) make all data from electronic reporting process available at all\ntimes on the internet.\n 10. establish rules allowing the admission of news media\nrepresentatives to the area of the polling place where the canvass of\nballots cast can be directly observed;\n 11. recommend such legislation or administrative measures as it finds\nappropriate to promote fair, honest and efficiently administered\nelections, including, but not limited to, legislation to adjust the\ncontribution limitations set forth in article fourteen of this chapter;\n 12. monitor the adequacy and effectiveness of the election laws and\nreport thereon at least annually to the governor and the legislature;\n 13. compile the information required with respect to the operation of\nthe National Voter Registration Act and report such information annually\nto the governor, the legislature and the Federal Election Commission\ntogether with an assessment of the operation of such act and any\nrecommendations for changes and improvements.\n 14. take all appropriate steps to encourage the broadest possible\nvoter participation in elections including the administration of a\nprogram of registration form distribution by participating state\nagencies as prescribed by section 5-211 of this chapter;\n 15. receive from the secretary of the senate and the clerk of the\nassembly a list of the mailing addresses of senators and members of the\nassembly. When members of the public, government officials, or agencies\nrequest the mailing addresses of senators and members of the assembly,\nthe mailing addresses submitted to the board by the secretary of the\nsenate and the clerk of the assembly shall be provided;\n 16. administer the administrative complaint procedure as provided for\nin section 3-105 of this article;\n 16-a. provide the department of corrections and community supervision\nwith a sufficient number of voter registration forms to allow the\ndepartment of corrections and community supervision to comply with the\nduty to provide such voter registration forms to persons upon the\nexpiration of their maximum sentence of imprisonment. Such voter\nregistration forms shall be addressed to the state board of elections.\n 16-b. Develop and implement a program to educate attorneys, judges,\nelection officials, corrections officials, including parole and\nprobation officers, and members of the public regarding the requirements\nof the chapter of the laws of two thousand twenty-one which added this\nsubdivision.\n 17. perform such other acts as may be necessary to carry out the\npurposes of this chapter.\n 18. promulgate rules and regulations to provide for the ability of\nindividuals who do not exclusively identify as a binary gender to run\nfor positions elected in gendered contests which respect the\nindividuals' gender identity. In no case shall the board of elections\npromulgate rules that are inconsistent with a system that requires\nindividuals filing for candidacy to self-identify their gender marker as\n"M", "F", or "X", requires all candidates to run in a single race, and\nmaintains requirements for gender diversity.\n