Legislative Update
Election Law
The State Senate passed a package of absentee voting reforms including the following:
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S.253: Legislation that would allow absentee ballots to be counted if they have stray marks or are missing a signature date https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2021/s253
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S.264: Legislation to expand the deadline to submit an absentee ballot application from 17 days to 15 days ahead of an election https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2021/s264
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S.492: Legislation to allow for drop boxes to be used for absentee voting https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2021/s492
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S.516: Legislation to mandate speedier sending of absentee ballots https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2021/s516
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S.631: Legislation to allow voters to submit absentee ballot application sooner than 30 days ahead of the election (the 2020 bill sunset in December) https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2021/s631
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S.632: Legislation to allow voters to submit their absentee ballot request electronically (the 2020 bill sunset in December) https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2021/s632
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S.1027: Legislation to expedite absentee ballot counting https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2021/s1027
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S.1028: Legislation to require boards of election to have an absentee ballot tracker https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2021/s1028
The Senate also again passed constitutional amendments to allow for no-excuse absentee voting and same day voter registration. We have sent a request to the new the Chair of Assembly Election Law Committee so see if we can determine when these bills may be taken up in the Assembly.
