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From registration to election day and beyond; how voting in New York works
Jul. 19—From registration to casting a ballot and after, the voting process in New York is one of checks, double checks and triple checks meant to ensure the integrity of the democratic process. As detailed through public documentation, the letter of the law and consulting with a state Board of Elections official, the process relies on the contributions of hundreds to thousands of people, from local volunteer poll inspectors to experts in a vast state oversight operation. REGISTRATION In New York, voters can register to vote either individually through their county Board of Elections, in person or by mail, or alongside their drivers license application. When filling out a voter registration form, the applicant has to affirm their right to vote as a citizen of the U.S., that they're over 18 or will be by election day, their address, provide some sort of identification, confirm a voting history if any exists, and select party membership, including not joining one at all. Applicants are asked to sign an affidavit affirming they are a citizen, have lived in the place they are registering to vote from for more than 30 days, and acknowledge a potential jail sentence or fine for being untruthful. If the individual registered for a party, that makes them eligible to vote in that party's primary elections, choosing which candidate will go forward against the other party candidates in the November general elections. Those not in a party, or in a smaller party that doesn't frequently hold primary elections, will be restricted to voting in nonpartisan elections only — the November general and some primaries in cities that bar party participation in local elections. CASTING THE VOTE For both primary and general elections, voters can apply for absentee ballots, permitting them to vote in their local elections while temporarily out of town for reasons including military service, college attendance or travel. New York recently updated election laws to also permit early voting by mail, which allows someone to request an early ballot be delivered to their home, allowing them to vote by mail even if they're physically able to make it to the polls. New York has also expanded early in-person voting for both primaries and general elections, allowing people to show up to a limited number of polling sites in their home county and cast a ballot the same way they would on election day. And then there's the normal election day process, where the county BOE's open dozens of polling sites in every city, town and village for voters to show up to in person, from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. While New York has shifted its primary calendar significantly in recent years, primary election days are typically a Tuesday at the end of June. General election day for almost all offices in New York and at the federal level is always the first Tuesday of November — this year that's November 4. Some local village and town elections may be held on different dates. Those elections are typically not run by the county boards of election, rather handled by the local government itself. This approach is fading out of practice in much of the state. In both primaries and general election dates, that one day of widespread poll openings is the deadline for all other forms of voting to be completed; in-person early voting wraps up the Sunday before election day, and both early and absentee mail ballots must be postmarked by election day, although they can be received up to a week after. The ballots themselves are not uniform across the state, but legislation was passed in 2011 that requires they meet a general standard — large, black and white pieces of paper with English and Spanish instructions. Offices on the ballot change depending on the election, and rules change depending on the office. Some elections for city council permit voters to pick more than one candidate, while races for mayor or governor allow only a single choice. In New York City, primary elections use a completely different ranked choice method that allows up to 5 choices, but those rules only apply to a limited number of elections and no other New York state entity employs those rules. New York uses digital optical scanning machines that take paper ballots, which replaced an older mechanical lever-based system. Whether the ballot is cast at a polling site or in a Board of Elections office, it's run through that county's choice of ballot machine and registered. In Jefferson County, officials use ClearBallot machines, while Lewis and Franklin Counties use Dominion machines. In St. Lawrence County, Dominion machines are used at poll sites while ClearBallot machines are used for the central count. Voting machines are tested for logic and accuracy before each election and tested to confirm they will work with all ballots being used by the county. All voting machines must be used each year, and tested each year, which is accomplished by rotating the machines used in each election event. The state Board of Elections maintains a centralized maintenance log for all voting machines and works with county officials to ensure the testing works as planned. Other counties across the state use other machines; the Hart Verity system or the Election Systems & Software platform. All four options consist of an optical scanning system and a dedicated ballot marking system that can be used by anyone, but is tailored to people with physical disabilities. Some systems offer specialized machines for ballot marking, while others like Dominion integrate an assistive technology platform with an optical scanner. Voters can choose to fill out their paper ballot by hand or use the assistive technology, regardless of if they are disabled or not. To use assistive technology, a voter only has to ask an election inspector. While voters are verified using signature-matching, in most counties done with computerized voter rolls now, their vote itself is not tied to them. Voters verify they are eligible to vote and have cast a ballot, but the ballot itself cannot be tied back to them. For mail-in ballots, election officials separate them from their signed envelopes which serve as their signature verification and feed them into a set-aside counting machine. COUNTING THE VOTE The vote is immediately counted when scanned into the machine and both the assistive voting machines and the optical scanners give voters a chance to return their ballot and show that it's been processed. Each paper ballot, which is generated both by the assistive machines and the hand voting process, is stored in the machine it was counted by, sealed behind a locked panel. Each vote cast in New York has a paper trail — nothing is fully digital. These poll machines feed their results into a centralized, secure election management system maintained by the local board of elections. That system permits them to immediately tally early, unverified results from all polling sites including their in-office machines used for early and mail-in ballots. In some cases, especially rural counties with polling sites in remote places, these machines don't report their results until delivered to the county board of elections headquarters, but most of them can report their results remotely through a secure connection. Then there's a verification process to make sure all ballots are counted properly; a recanvas and a post-election audit. Both those processes are set out in state law with strict timelines. For the recanvas, machine totals are checked against aggregate vote totals to make sure the math works out, and that is done for every optical scanning machine. The audit, which counts individual ballots and compares those results to the machines records, is done on 3% of machines but can be expanded if the recanvas shows errors or the audit shows a high failure rate. In all instances, paper ballots filled out by the voter are available to be counted. For extremely close contests, manual recounts are automatically triggered as well. When a candidate has a legitimate concern over the results of an election, they can petition for a manual recount for their contest as well. Early votes and mail-in ballots are scanned on machines that cannot have their results read until the polls close, or as much as an hour beforehand with a strict block on reporting that information anywhere public. Results reported on election night after the polls close reflect in-person voting, including early in-person and day-of voting, as well as the mailed ballots that could be verified and processed before election day. There are still votes coming in for up to a week after election day, mailed up to the day of the election, and some mailed ballots may be 'cured' if they present verification problems that the voter can correct. Additionally, some errors may be found during the recanvas, audit or for contests with recounts. Post-election, the state board of elections receives the voting activity for all registered voters in each county through the NYSVoter proprietary database. The state board then conducts a match process to ensure there was no double or improper voting. Counties also have to certify their audit process with the state board. Once all of that is done, the county boards certify their results, affirming the vote count is true and accurate, and locking in the results. Some certified votes come in within weeks of the election, others take months to resolve in the event of irregularities, legal challenges or other challenges to the validity of the results. While significant errors are rare, and preliminary results typically closely resemble or exactly match the certified results, numbers shared before certification are considered preliminary and are subject to change. THE PEOPLE WHO DO THE WORK In New York, Boards of Elections are bipartisan operations; the local Republican and Democratic party committees each nominate a commissioner who is accepted by the local county legislature and appointed to run the board. Each party then has an equal number of staff including a deputy, a technical manager, a clerk and other staff. Some counties with large populations have over a hundred election staff members, while most rural counties have between 8 and 14 staff members — all are chosen by their respective party's commissioner. Local boards are responsible for adjudicating ballot access, and commissioners vote on whether a candidate has fulfilled the standards set out in the law when issues with ballot access petitions arise. Party organizations can send individuals to observe the counting process on and after election night, but only registered poll inspectors and county board of elections staff are allowed to do the actual recounting and auditing. Some local boards of election allow members of the public to observe as well, provided numbers remain reasonable and viewers do not interfere with the process. Board of elections staff retain the power to remove any observer who causes disruption, and some counties enlist sheriff's deputies to maintain order. The state board of elections is similar although it has four commissioners, two Republican and two Democrat. It also has two executive directors also nominated by the Democrat and Republican parties. Established in 1974, it doesn't count votes and rather serves as an overseer for the county boards, regulator for campaign finance and campaign laws, and assistant with over arching responsibilities. The state Board of Elections performs a final check of all county voting results, compares voter rolls to ensure no voter cast two ballots, and checks New York's voter rolls against a national voter roll for the same purpose. The state board is also tasked with certifying all voting technology before county boards can buy the machines, including all physical devices, software and updates, registration systems, polling books, ballot marking devices, as well as the physical furniture used for polling sites. They show up on-site when a county elections board purchases new technology and review it with an isolated computer system. They also review ballots to ensure they fit a reasonable standard and maintain campaign finance records for political campaigns. In the event of legal challenges, errors or other problems with the county process, the state board offers resources to assist the local officials with resolving issues. "The steps that the county boards must take post-election day are meant to check and double-check work that has been done before the process can be finalized," said a spokesperson for the state board of elections. "Accuracy is almost more important than speed. Above all, election administration and oversight are always transparent and bipartisan. These priorities help ensure fairness, accuracy and security of voting and elections." Solve the daily Crossword
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Jaroslav Halak and Blake Wheeler Announce Retirement From NHL
Jaroslav Halak and Blake Wheeler, two former New York Rangers players, have both formally announced their retirement from the NHL.
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Clippers continue to 'strongly' consider signing Chris Paul
As Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank conducted his Zoom with the media Saturday from the team's practice facility, he looked to his right and mentioned how James Harden was in the gym working out and how Harden played a pivotal role in the team signing free-agent guard Bradley Beal. But Frank is not done building a roster to compete in the rugged Western Conference, indicating that signing former Clippers guard Chris Paul is high on their list. There have been so many rumors about Paul wanting to play for the Clippers in the upcoming season, about how he wanted to be close to his family in the Los Angeles area, and how the Clippers had interest in him returning to the franchise. Frank didn't shy away from how the Clippers view having Paul on the roster. 'He obviously possesses some of the qualities we just referenced about and of course we're strongly, strongly considering him,' Frank said. Paul, 40, played in all 82 games last season with the San Antonio Spurs. He averaged 28.0 minutes per game, 8.8 points, 3.6 rebounds, 7.4 assists and shot 42.7% from the field. Read more: It's official: The Clippers sign Bradley Beal He spent six years with the Clippers, from 2011-12 until the 2016-17 season, and ushered in the 'Lob City' era with Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. 'What I'd say about Chris is he's a great player,' Frank said. 'He's a great Clipper.' Paul was traded in June of 2017 to the Houston Rockets, where he became a teammate of Harden. Over the course of his 20-year career, Paul averaged 17.0 points, 9.2 assists and shot 47% from the field and 37% from three-point range. If the Clippers do sign him, they will have three point guards — Harden, Kris Dunn and Paul. Frank said the Clippers want to 'lean into the ballhandling and playmaking' as they look to complete the roster. 'What we've seen is sometimes the problem of having too many guys and how that can impact the team,' Frank said. 'So, we've learned from those lessons and I think the conversations that we have with anyone who's going to join the Clippers next, they understand it's a reserve role. They understand that kind of going into camp exactly what it looks like. So there's no preconceived misconceptions yet.' Adding Paul would give the Clippers five veteran guards — Harden, Beal, Paul, Dunn and Bogdan Bogdanonic — on a team that typically rotates 10 players during a game under coach Tyronn Lue's system. Read more: Clippers rookie Yanic Konan Niederhauser showing growth in Summer League Harden played in 79 games last season and he averaged 35.3 minutes per game, ranking him 16th in the NBA. He averaged 22.8 points, 8.7 assists, 5.8 rebounds and shot 41% from the field and 35.3% from three-point range. He'll be 36 in August and having more playmaking guards like Paul will relieve some of the pressure off Harden. 'The reality is for any NBA team, the amount of times you have your top 10 all available, it's usually 21 to 25 times throughout the course of a year,' Frank said. 'So, you literally need everyone on your roster to be able to contribute. But to your point, because we do have a lot of versatility. … "So, Brad Beal could give us more playmaking with the ball. … Kris Dunn can be the backup point guard. Bogdan can handle along with James. You just want to put everything on the table and then find the best person who can have total role acceptance and awareness and still if needed to play can play.' Beal, 32, signed a two-year, $11-million deal with the Clippers, with a player option after next season. He averaged 17.0 points last season with the Phoenix Suns and shot 49.7% from the field and 38.6% from three-point range. Beal probably will be the starting two guard next to Harden. 'As you guys know, Brad is a gifted two-way player who's a three-level scorer who can create offense for himself and others,' Frank said. 'He brings additional ball-handling, play-making and shooting to the group areas we wanted to upgrade.' Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
