As the law is currently written, County Boards of Elections handle all election results data and precinct shapefiles, and are not required to submit them to the state board. In addition, counties can decide whether or not to post any results online, let alone precinct-level results, and can even charge you for requesting them after you submit a FOIL request. This is ridiculous, and keeps our state behind the digital age. The last two reforms listed are to help standardize election results recording in the state.
Below are three categories of reforms to fix these problems. These ideas aren't complex or new; legislators in New Jersey have
proposed similar reforms.
Make Precinct-Level Election Results Free and Readily Accessible
The first recommendation to fix our elections data issues is to make precinct-level election results data free and publicly available, in an easy-to-use format.
This recommendation would be done through passage of
the bill I wrote establishing the New York State Voting and Elections Database and Institute.
Make Precinct Shapefiles Free and Readily Accessible
The second recommendation is to make precinct shapefiles free and publicly available, and to use a statewide standard set of boundaries for all shapefiles to follow.
This recommendation would be done through passage of
the bill I wrote establishing the New York State Voting and Elections Database and Institute.
Standardized Election Results
The third and final recommendation is to standardize election results statewide. To do so, New York can pass a bill stipulating the following:
Require write-in votes to be calculated and included in all results files separately from Blank/Void votes in election results for every county. Require separate columns in election results for Blank votes, Void votes, Overvotes, and Undervotes.
Require absentee votes and early votes to be assigned to the corresponding voters' precinct in election results for every county.