Recap of the Assembly Election Law Committee Public Hearing

Gotham Gazette has a recap of last Friday’s Assembly Election Law Committee public hearing, which was supposed to focus on the new compliance unit at the state Board of Elections (BOE). (See the hearing agenda here.)

State BOE Executive Director Robert Brehm explained the status and operations of the state board’s new compliance unit, an office dedicated to investigate campaign finance regulations, which started work in July. The new unit’s purpose is to help treasurers and candidates “do it right.”

One legislator, Assemblyman Tom Abinanti (D-Westchester) noted that, for the first time, his campaign was notified during this election cycle about a filing error that it had been making for years.

The state Board of Elections also informed lawmakers that it is working on a “complete redesign” of its campaign finance system, which it hopes to launch in late 2016 or early 2017. This new system will replace the one that was initially put in place in 1994, at a cost of $2.4 million.

Good government groups expressed support, calling the current system “antiquated and precarious.”

A representative of the New York City Board of Elections also testified, and said that the New York City Board of Elections hopes to have tablets at every polling site by late-2015, so that poll workers can upload vote counts immediately after the polls close.