[0:06] Morning. It's September 2nd, 2026, and this is the meeting of the State Board of

[0:11] Elections. I'm Peter Kosinski. I'm joined today by Commissioners Henry Berger,

[0:17] Tony Casale, Essma Bagnuola,

[0:20] and we'll start the meeting off with a review of minutes from previous meetings.

[0:26] We have three sets of minutes. I have May 2nd, June 5th, and July 2nd.

[0:32] Do I have a motion to accept the minutes?

[0:35] So moved.

[0:35] Second.

[0:37] All in favor, aye.

[0:39] Aye.

[0:40] Aye. That's adopted unanimously. Okay, we'll move on to unit reports.

[0:45] We have Kristen and Ray. Whoever wants to go.

[0:48] Thank you, Commissioner. I'll take the report.

[0:51] The co-executive directors worked with staff throughout the agency, as well as

[0:56] coordinated with county boards of elections and other state agencies on several

[1:00] issues since our last board meeting.

[1:02] Starting with the 2026 primary election, by all accounts, the election was a

[1:06] success with a statewide as well as federal and local primaries throughout New

[1:11] York. County boards of elections employed tens of thousands of poll workers across

[1:16] the state. We thank our partners for their coordination throughout the election

[1:19] process and the county boards for their tireless efforts.

[1:23] With results certified, we look forward to the 2026 general election.

[1:28] Speaking of the '26 general election, ballot access for that has concluded in

[1:32] August with nominations of Supreme Court justices.

[1:36] Later today, the co-executive directors will certify the general election ballot a

[1:40] full week ahead of the deadline, providing county boards ample time to design their

[1:45] ballots and certify their local contests ahead of the September 18th deadline to

[1:50] transmit military and overseas ballots.

[1:53] As Kristen had mentioned in our last report, election security is our priority

[1:57] every year. We continue coordination with our state and federal partners to ensure

[2:01] the general election is safe, secure, and accessible to all voters.

[2:06] Throughout the summer, we met with several state and federal partners to continue

[2:10] our work in ensuring election security.

[2:13] We held a follow-up tabletop exercise with all our state partners to ensure the

[2:18] election security playbook was updated to reflect any new or emerging threats for

[2:24] 2026. Last month, the State Board of Election, in conjunction with the New York

[2:30] State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, as well as other

[2:34] state partners, held tabletop exercises throughout the state.

[2:38] These were daily events in all four corners of the state that allowed county boards

[2:42] of elections, county IT, and county emergency services to work together to plan for

[2:48] the upcoming election. I want to thank our CISO, Ben Speer, our CIO, Laura Baker,

[2:53] as well as our operations and PIO teams for their work coordinating these events.

[2:59] Since our last meeting, the state budget was passed and signed into law.

[3:03] State Board received full funding for our operations as well as grant renewals and

[3:07] some new grants

[3:09] that PIO will speak about later.

[3:14] On to OVR and AVR. Since the start of 2026, our online voter

[3:19] registration portals have seen 78,076 transactions, a little

[3:25] over 40,000 through the state portal and just under 38,000 through the New York

[3:30] City portal. This brings the total transactions to just shy of 1.6 million since

[3:35] its inception in 2023.

[3:38] Automatic voter registration has been live with DMV since March for phase one.

[3:43] These are all electronic transmissions through the DMV regarding voter

[3:47] registration. In that time, 535,308

[3:53] transactions have passed through the clearinghouse to county boards of elections.

[3:57] Rollout for phase two, which includes paper forms, is scheduled for 2027.

[4:02] We are actively working with ITS and DMV to go live on phase two.

[4:08] Additional agencies continue their work to connect to the clearinghouse, and the

[4:11] State Board is ready to assist in that process.

[4:14] As a reminder, phase two will tackle paper applications and transmit those forms

[4:18] from agencies. And then phase three will integrate the State Board DMV change of

[4:24] address transmissions required under NVRA into the AVR clearinghouse, which will

[4:29] consolidate systems and streamline the process.

[4:33] The PCFB/SBOE integrated software, MTX has been on site since March of

[4:38] 2024. They continue to work closely with Deputy Directors Connolly and Vulo, CIO

[4:44] Laura Baker, our business units, and our IT unit.

[4:48] Our team and MTX continue with testing on matching funds and payments for PCFB.

[4:53] Public reporting has been developed, and we continue to work through security and

[4:57] performance testing.

[4:59] Once this testing is completed, we will go live with public reporting.

[5:04] Election operations is meeting weekly with MTX to develop business rules for their

[5:09] section of the system.

[5:13] 2026 projects, we'll start with Train the Trainer.

[5:15] The work continues with Election Center to stand up the State Board of Elections

[5:19] Training Institute. Our accessibility and training unit are meeting regularly with

[5:23] Election Center, and they are drafting the training manual, and we still expect a

[5:28] launch in 2027.

[5:31] Voting and elections database. Work on the Dr. John L.

[5:34] Flato Voting and Election Database of New York continues.

[5:38] The application went live before April of 2026 implementation date.

[5:43] ITU and PIO have worked with our vendor on all phases of this project.

[5:48] PIO and ITU have also held sessions with villages, schools, libraries, and county

[5:53] board of elections to walk through the expectations and data layouts required to

[5:57] file their results with us. Based on local jurisdiction suggestions, we continue to

[6:03] make updates to the system and the data reporting sheets.

[6:07] As a reminder, data is required to be entered no later than January 1st for all

[6:12] elections taking place in 2026.

[6:15] August has been an exceptionally busy month for the State Board.

[6:18] As I mentioned previously, we spent the week of August 10th traveling around the

[6:22] state hosting our Election Security Road Show.

[6:24] These took place in Newport, Queensbury, Oriskany, and Rochester, and had

[6:29] attendance from almost every county across the state.

[6:32] The following week of August 17th, five members of the State Board leadership

[6:36] attended the annual Election Center Conference in Kansas City.

[6:41] The annual conference is an opportunity for election officials across the country

[6:45] to meet and collaborate with federal partners as well as each other.

[6:49] At this conference, four members of the State Board of Elections received their

[6:52] CERA certification. CERA certification is the highest professional achievement for

[6:57] election officials in the country and is offered in collaboration with the Election

[7:01] Center and Auburn University. In the next year, we expect two more members of the

[7:06] State Board staff to receive their certification, with others currently going

[7:10] through the process in addition to those two.

[7:15] The following week, August 24th, SBOE attended the Summer Elections Commissioners

[7:19] Association Conference in Oneida County.

[7:22] This biannual gathering of county commissioners and staff provide our local

[7:26] election community with an opportunity to collaborate and receive important

[7:30] information from both the State Board and outside partners.

[7:34] State Board presented at this conference, and we thank the ECA for their continued

[7:38] partnership. We continue to have ongoing meetings biweekly with the Division of

[7:43] Budget,

[7:45] biweekly with the executive branch, monthly with OGS,

[7:51] biweekly with the Division of Election Law Enforcement, and we do hold monthly

[7:55] conference calls with the Election Commissioners Association and work with them to

[8:00] provide guidance to county boards.

[8:04] In the last year, we have begun including an additional training series following

[8:10] our monthly ECA calls to bring additional resources to county boards.

[8:14] These include important updates from the State Board as well as information from

[8:18] outside partners. Last month, the Attorney General's office presented to counties

[8:22] on how to respond to requests for the criminal process.

[8:25] This month, we have FBI New York coming in, who will be presenting on de-escalation

[8:28] training.

[8:30] Finally, I just want to do a thank you to our staff and our partners.

[8:34] The work of election officials is often thankless with very long hours, and we

[8:38] appreciate the work of all the counties are doing to make democracy happen in the

[8:42] state of New York this year. With that, I'll pass it over to Kristen for any

[8:45] additional comments you might have.

[8:46] Thank you. I would just say that

[8:50] elections are in the news quite a bit lately, as we all know, and there's a lot

[8:54] being thrown at our commissioners and a lot being thrown at election administrators

[8:58] throughout the country. They rise to the occasion, so I really do have to thank

[9:02] them. We also have the greatest staff in the world who are constantly

[9:08] looking for ways to support the counties, to bring them the tools and the resources

[9:12] they need to succeed. And there was a lot of talk about some of the federal

[9:16] partners maybe stepping back. I do want to say that we had a great partnership with

[9:19] our state Homeland Security and Emergency Services.

[9:22] They provided an incredible tabletop exercise that, dare I say, was

[9:28] maybe as good, if not better, than in the past.

[9:32] They were with us partners the entire week, and so I think voters in New York

[9:37] should rest assured that

[9:40] we're ready for this election. We are professional, and all of the counties have

[9:44] the tools they need to succeed and to act on any

[9:50] problems, issues to make sure that every eligible voter has unfettered access.

[9:55] So I really am so proud of everyone here and in the counties.

[9:59] I also am delighted to introduce Christina Asbee, who is our new deputy counsel at

[10:04] the State Board. She comes to us from Disability Rights New York.

[10:08] She is

[10:10] An accomplished litigator, and she's already jumped right into the team, and we're

[10:14] so happy to have her here. So

[10:17] thank you.

[10:19] Okay, thank you. Any questions?

[10:22] Hearing none, we can move on. Thank you for that report.

[10:24] We'll move on to the Operations unit, Amy and Jude.

[10:29] Thank you so much, Commissioner. In addition to all of the things previously

[10:33] mentioned, of course, we have been working on that general ballot certification for

[10:38] the coexecs later today so that we can get that into the hands of the counties as

[10:42] quickly as possible so that they can get their ballots done, into the mail stream,

[10:47] and out to voters. We, of course, stand ready to provide assistance and proof their

[10:53] ballots if they would like to share them with us.

[10:56] We're happy to proof them to ensure compliance with the Voter Friendly Ballot Act.

[11:00] And since our last meeting, we've conducted upgrades and acceptance testing on over

[11:05] 3,000 voting machines. By way of voting system vendors, we do have one system

[11:11] that's currently in testing, and that is an upgrade to the central count of the

[11:17] Clear Ballot machine, and that would allow for the 3% audit of the

[11:22] ExpressVote XL.

[11:26] For voter registration systems, nothing new to report, and for electronic poll

[11:29] books, we do have one electronic poll book, 10X, for consideration later this

[11:35] meeting. Jude, if you have anything to add, of course.

[11:39] Nothing to add. Thank you very much.

[11:41] Okay. Thank you. Is there any questions for either one of Amy or Jude?

[11:46] Hearing none, we'll move on to counsel, Brian and Kevin.

[11:51] Thank you, commissioners. We'll start with a litigation update on some

[11:57] outstanding matters. There is technically currently one ballot access matter

[12:03] still under appeal. We do anticipate that that will not be taken up by the Court of

[12:08] Appeals, and that that will be closed in the coming weeks.

[12:13] There was no change to the ballot based on the initial appeal in the Third

[12:17] Department. In the federal even-year election case in the Eastern

[12:23] District, a second amended complaint was filed following the granting of the motion

[12:27] to dismiss as to the

[12:30] state defendants from the initial complaints.

[12:33] There is an in-person conference on a pending motion to dismiss scheduled for

[12:38] October 7th in the Eastern District.

[12:42] In the citizens audit lawsuit, which sought equitable relief and money damages

[12:47] against both the Attorney General's office and the Board of Elections, the motion

[12:52] to dismiss that was filed was mostly granted.

[12:55] We were represented by the AG's office in that matter.

[12:58] A few remaining prongs of that case are going to move forward on the merits, so we

[13:02] are in the discovery phase in that matter, but that is moving along.

[13:08] In the American Future Fund matter, which is a challenge to the definitions within

[13:14] the independent expenditure committee section of our campaign finance laws, the

[13:19] preliminary injunction that was applied for was denied late last year.

[13:23] The interlocutory appeal on that is still ongoing.

[13:27] There was a mediation session that occurred back in February, but we have not heard

[13:31] anything since then, so we are still moving forward on that.

[13:35] United States versus the Board of Elections was the federal government's challenge

[13:40] to the denial for certain voter registration data that was requested.

[13:45] The motion to dismiss on behalf of the state defendants was granted with prejudice

[13:50] on July 10th.

[13:53] Common Cause, which is the challenge to the certification of the ExpressVote XL,

[13:58] that is still ongoing. The Supreme Court originally dismissed on procedural

[14:03] grounds. That was appealed and then sent back to the Supreme Court to be heard on

[14:07] the merits. That was decided and dismissed in the beginning of May.

[14:12] The appeal on the merits is now ongoing in the Third Department.

[14:15] The oral argument for that has not yet been calendared.

[14:19] And then finally, Frenzel versus Moore is the still ongoing federal challenge to

[14:24] the OTB write-in statute. The Western District granted the

[14:30] summary judgment motion and dismissed the case in June of last year.

[14:33] An appeal was taken to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

[14:36] We are still awaiting calendaring of oral argument in that matter.

[14:43] For the remainder of the meeting agenda, we do have five regulations that are up

[14:48] for final adoption. We can discuss those in more detail when we arrive to that part

[14:52] of the agenda. Turning to the compliance unit, the total number of active

[14:58] filers is currently 7,409. We have

[15:03] 1,108 non-filers as of yesterday on file for the July periodic.

[15:10] Since the last board meeting, the unit has completed over 5,700 reviews and

[15:15] received over 7,000 itemized reports, registered 787

[15:21] candidates as well as 170 committees, while simultaneously terminating 206

[15:27] committees and 257 candidate records.

[15:32] Since the last board meeting, 570 emails have been processed through our CF info

[15:36] email account, providing varying levels of assistance.

[15:40] And in a broader sense, there are continuing initiatives on the

[15:45] compliance front to update and refresh a number of things, including standard

[15:51] operating procedure, materials, forms, checklists, and investigating current

[15:56] workflows to find potential room for improvement and streamlining.

[16:00] This is in parallel to a number of longer-term, what we're referring to as cleanup

[16:04] initiatives, including investigating dormant committees, following up on invalid

[16:08] email addresses and committees on hold, which will help us clear out longstanding

[16:14] committees and records that should not still be

[16:18] active in our system, so to speak. These initiatives, I would like to mention, are

[16:23] for the vast majority moving forward on the unit's own initiative.

[16:28] The leadership of that unit comes to Brian and myself on a regular cadence with

[16:32] these ideas, and they are continuously looking to find ways to improve our

[16:38] processes and make sure that everything is current.

[16:41] And I just want to make sure to thank the unit and its leadership for their

[16:45] continued initiative and hard work on that, because these are all very

[16:51] important measures to be taking, and I think they're very much improving our

[16:55] workflow overall. So, I just want to thank them for their work on that, and

[17:01] second the comments earlier for welcoming Christy as a member of counsel's office.

[17:07] It's noteworthy whenever someone joins our small unit within the board, so just

[17:12] want to make sure to say that. So, that's all I have, unless Brian has anything to

[17:17] add.

[17:18] I have nothing to add.

[17:19] Great.

[17:20] Thank you.

[17:21] Okay. Any questions for Kevin or Brian?

[17:26] Hearing none, we'll move on to enforcement. Mike Johnson.

[17:31] Yeah.

[17:34] The Division of Election Law Enforcement, we actually took on a

[17:39] matter earlier this year regarding the July

[17:44] primary. We received a complaint regarding

[17:50] possible videotaping of the voters.

[17:55] I reached out to the two commissioners,

[17:59] who had no idea it was happening, and to their credit, they both acted

[18:04] immediately to take care of the matter.

[18:07] And after speaking with both commissioners, I sent

[18:13] two investigators to review the matter, and they came up with

[18:19] some suggestions for the commissioners, which they were suggestions that were

[18:24] implemented. And I noticed that the board, Kristin and Ray, they

[18:30] sent out a flowchart diagram incorporating some of the suggestions

[18:36] that we had made to the two commissioners out in Fulton County,

[18:42] I believe. And it was great, and I thank you guys for putting that out

[18:47] because it was perfect. So it incorporated a lot of the things that we had

[18:52] suggested and things that the commissioners implemented out there to deal with the

[18:57] issue.

[18:59] And speaking further with regard to the division itself, we're also looking

[19:05] at different types of improvements and initiatives and things like that.

[19:11] And one thing that we are doing now is we're working with ITS

[19:18] ... to come up with a better case management system because the case management

[19:23] system we're currently using is something that has been put together from when

[19:29] I've started, and it's evolved over time.

[19:32] But in the process of looking for improvements, efficiencies, and things of that

[19:37] nature, we

[19:40] need to do a complete audit of our process and what we do before we can migrate

[19:46] over what we have into the new system.

[19:49] And part of that audit process will involve looking at our workflows,

[19:55] what we've done, the numbers that get generated in terms

[20:00] of our statistics regarding how many cases we have, how many cases

[20:06] we've closed, and part of that will involve looking at how we have done

[20:12] things in the past to see if we can find efficiencies to do a much

[20:18] smoother job and make things flow a little bit easier for us.

[20:27] Is that it? Are you-

[20:28] That's it

[20:29] ... finished with that it?

[20:32] I know that you wanted some information regarding some of our

[20:36] statistics and with regard to some of the reports that get generated, the quarterly

[20:42] reports, the yearly reports. That will be part of the audit

[20:47] process that we're going into right now to make certain that all of your

[20:53] questions get answered. So once the audit process gets complete, and I'm hoping

[20:59] that it can be done within the next couple of weeks or so,

[21:02] you'll hear from me, and I will provide you with the answers that you were looking

[21:08] for.

[21:09] Okay. Yeah, I appreciate that, Mike.

[21:12] So you think that audit will be done in a couple of weeks?

[21:15] I'm hoping because we really need to get the case management

[21:21] system.

[21:22] Yeah.

[21:24] Yep, agreed. Just to give this some context,

[21:28] our staff looked at some of the statistics, and I know they brought it to Mike's

[21:32] attention that there's some discrepancies within his reporting to us as far

[21:38] as number of complaints he receives, number of cases opened, number of cases

[21:44] closed,

[21:46] and there's just some cases that aren't accounted for, and it sort of varies year

[21:51] to year. It's actually been better lately, but I noted in 2023, we found there

[21:57] were 59 complaints that were filed that were not accounted for, either closed or

[22:01] opened or any accounting to either the board or in the annual report.

[22:06] So, we brought that to Mike's attention, and you told us, I know, in that letter

[22:10] that you were going to do this audit, and that would resolve it or hopefully get us

[22:14] some more information on

[22:16] resolving those discrepancies. So I appreciate that you're doing that, and I look

[22:20] forward to your report. So in the next couple of weeks, I'll look forward to

[22:23] getting that.

[22:24] Yeah, because some of the things, for instance, and I know those numbers don't show

[22:29] is we may get five complaints in. They may all be the exact

[22:36] same thing. We don't open five cases. It's just one case.

[22:40] So sometimes you'll see discrepancies in numbers like that.

[22:44] But again, the audit process that we're going through will clarify for you

[22:50] exactly what those numbers mean.

[22:52] Okay, that'd be helpful.

[22:55] All right.

[22:56] Anything else? Any questions?

[23:00] Commissioner, I would just say that I would like to add to Michael our thanks

[23:05] because the commissioners at Fulton County were amazing.

[23:08] They acted, and I think the type of guidance we sent out-

[23:12] Right

[23:12] ... is exactly what we should be doing in response to issues like that that arise.

[23:17] And that was a surveillance that was in a justice court, and it just lets us go

[23:22] into the November election with commissioners thinking about this in advance,

[23:27] knowing that they should check their poll sites, make sure that voting is private

[23:31] and there's nothing happening, that they don't really control those sites until the

[23:35] days of election. So, that was a very good thing, and I just, again, would, I

[23:40] think, Ray and both commend those commissioners. They did a great job.

[23:44] Yeah.

[23:47] Okay. Good to hear.

[23:50] If we're done with enforcement, we'll move on to NVRA, NDRA, TIO, Kathleen, and

[23:55] Jennifer.

[23:57] Okay. Good morning, commissioners.

[23:59] To start, as always, with our freedom of information request that we received at

[24:02] the board since our last meeting on May 12th, the Public Information Office, in

[24:07] just shy of four months, has processed 852 foil requests.

[24:12] We average about 216 a month, and right now, 97.6 are closed.

[24:17] So 52 of 873 are closed. As a reminder, we are a clearinghouse for foils for not

[24:23] only the state board but also the PCFB and the Division of Election Law

[24:26] Enforcement, working with staff to gather responsive material, get it reviewed by

[24:31] council, and make responses in a timely manner.

[24:34] We also provide guidance to the county boards on foil requests they receive.

[24:38] For the state board's website, we've had numerous updates since our May meeting,

[24:42] including posting proposed regulations for public comment, as council alluded to, a

[24:47] new HAVA determination from council, an updated list of voting technology used by

[24:52] the various counties, updated statement of identity lists from contributing LLCs.

[24:57] The new 2026 Election Law Book has been published there in an accessible format.

[25:03] Certified results from the June primary election are posted, as well as updated

[25:08] board meeting information for both today and some board meetings, the quicker board

[25:12] meetings we've had in June and July.

[25:15] Our email service has grown subscribers since our last board meeting.

[25:21] We've sent out four emails, including a reminder about the Golden Day for the

[25:26] primary election, reminders about mail ballot request deadlines, a reminder in

[25:31] advance of the July periodic report for our campaign finance filers, a security

[25:36] alert from the Secure Election Center about phishing attempts via email, and

[25:40] publication about today's board meetings.

[25:44] Since our last board meeting, we have had six visits to county boards from PIO

[25:49] staff, and that includes Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Hamilton, Herkimer, and Saint

[25:53] Lawrence. These visits cover list maintenance, NVRA requirements, and grant updates

[25:57] for these counties. Also related to counties, since we last met, we collected the

[26:03] pre-election and post-election federal surveys regarding military and overseas

[26:08] ballots for the June primary from the counties, and we're now preparing for the

[26:12] upcoming move deadline on September 18th for the general election and will work

[26:16] with the county boards to ensure their surveys about that election are submitted

[26:20] timely.

[26:22] Since our last board meeting, NVRA coordinator Tantumi has conducted one training

[26:26] with the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance last month in July, with

[26:30] more being scheduled in the fall. As Ray mentioned earlier, PIO is part of the

[26:35] state board team working to develop the John L.

[26:37] Latow Voting and Elections Database of New York Act, VEDAS, as we call it.

[26:41] We continue to communicate with our county boards, as well as other election

[26:45] authorities such as school districts, libraries, and villages, about this law

[26:50] change and offering training for those election authority uploaders so that they

[26:54] can meet their statutory deadline.

[26:57] For general media functions, we have had a lot of traditional media inquiries since

[27:01] we last met, a wide variety of issues, including independent nominating petitions

[27:06] and signature requirements, the ballot certification early voting numbers, and the

[27:10] unofficial results for the June primary, mail ballot deadlines amidst USPS

[27:15] changes and campaign finance issues such as disclosure reports, contribution

[27:20] limits, and lastly, how online voter registrations are processed.

[27:24] We released press releases regarding the change in postmarking guidelines from

[27:28] USPS. We commemorated National Poll Worker Recruitment Day last month, and we put

[27:33] out a press release regarding the Election Security Road Show that we hosted last

[27:37] month that Ray also mentioned in his report.

[27:40] For social media, we have had a really busy few months with lots of engagement.

[27:44] In fact, it's been our best State Board of Elections month ever on social media.

[27:48] We've had posts that have covered explaining what a primary election is, reminding

[27:53] folks about the Golden Day in terms of different deadlines and early voting, daily

[27:57] early voting posts, thanking poll workers post-election, reminder for that July

[28:02] periodic report, again celebrating National Poll Worker Recruitment Day.

[28:06] We did a series about voters in special circumstances that got us our most shares

[28:11] and comments and replies ever. Publication of this year's law book has been posted

[28:16] and board meeting information.

[28:19] We have accounts still on Facebook, Instagram, and X, where we have increased

[28:23] followers. And in fact, I know that these numbers can feel weird, but on Facebook,

[28:27] just in the last four months, which didn't include a general election, we had over

[28:31] 254,000 views of what we said and over 8,000 interactions on our posts.

[28:36] And that includes impressions of when someone that follows us shares it to their

[28:40] followers, and so the message is getting out there, and we've had an increase of 7%

[28:45] followers on Facebook, over 10% on Instagram.

[28:48] So it's really been our best few months yet in social media.

[28:52] We continue to create content for the upcoming months, including celebrations this

[28:56] month for National Voter Registration Day and Disability Voter Rights Week, and

[29:00] information about the general election as we approach November.

[29:03] Three quick miscellaneous items to cover before I hand it to Jennifer.

[29:08] As Ray mentioned, the Election Security Roadshow, PIO presented on mis, dis, and

[29:12] mal information, as well as safe mail handling procedures for election offices and

[29:17] technology-related foil requests and guidance.

[29:21] At the ECA Summer Conference last week, we presented on language access

[29:25] requirements, grants, list maintenance, and VIDA.

[29:30] Later this month, Ben Spears, Siso, and I will participate in a discussion at the

[29:34] Ewing Forum at Canandaigua about election and cybersecurity that we're excited to

[29:38] talk about all the steps the state and the county boards do to ensure our elections

[29:43] run securely, both in both information and cyber realms.

[29:47] So I will pass it over to Jennifer for grants.

[29:49] Thank you, Kathleen. Since our last meeting, the state legislature finalized the

[29:54] budget for our fiscal year 2026, 2027, and I am pleased to report that in the

[29:58] budget, we did receive two new grant appropriations to be used by county boards, $3

[30:03] billion for expenses related to elections held in 2026, and $5 million for mail

[30:08] ballot-related expenses. This is actually the third year in a row that counties are

[30:12] receiving general funding to support elections for the year, and the fifth year in

[30:16] a row that we are receiving state funding for mail ballot-related expenses.

[30:21] In addition to these new funds, we also had annual extensions for our eight

[30:26] existing grant funds. And across those appropriations, we only have about 9% of

[30:31] funds remaining. So again, we're very grateful to the legislature for these new

[30:35] funds. During this budget cycle, we also requested that the legislature let lapse

[30:39] our three older state grants, our 2019 Capital Projects Electronic Poll Book, 2019

[30:44] Eight Localities Early Voting Grant, and our 2021 Early Voting Expansion Grant.

[30:49] And the total of those funds was $26.7 million.

[30:53] Ahead of the budget, we encouraged the counties to spend down any remaining

[30:56] balances that they had, and I am super proud of our team and of the counties

[31:02] because, in the end, we only had 0.2% of funds remaining across those three grants.

[31:08] On our federal grants, we are also finally closing out our two older HAVA

[31:12] sub-awards, our HAVA 251 shoebox and HAVA 101 Voter Education and Poll

[31:18] Worker Training grants. These original HAVA appropriations were issued as early as

[31:22] 2006, and there's been several different appropriations over the years that have

[31:27] been funding for both state and local boards of elections.

[31:30] Based on our federal reporting, the 251 grant appropriation totaled more than $172

[31:35] million since its inception, and the 101 grant had over $16 million in

[31:41] funds. Similar to the other three grants, we did encourage counties to spend down

[31:45] any outstanding funds before we closed them.

[31:48] And in the end, there was $162,000 left on the shoebox grant and

[31:52] $332,000 left on the 101 grant, which sounds like a lot, but in the grand scheme of

[31:58] $172 million and $16 million, it's really quite a drop in the bucket.

[32:03] And the excellent news is, because these are federal funds, they will not be

[32:06] surrendered back to the state, and instead, the State Board of Elections will get

[32:09] to keep those funds and repurpose them for other federal election-related expenses.

[32:14] And that's everything I have for grants.

[32:16] Thanks, Jen.

[32:18] Good. Thank you. Any questions?

[32:21] If not, we'll move on to... Thank you for that.

[32:24] We'll move on to accessibility and training. Helen and Jen.

[32:29] Good afternoon, commissioners.

[32:32] The Accessibility Services and Training unit will now oversee language access for

[32:37] the agency. We're working with Jen and Kathleen to ensure a smooth transition.

[32:42] We activated video services on our language line account to accommodate people

[32:47] whose primary language is ASL who may come into the office.

[32:50] We translated the 2026 political calendar into Spanish, and we are currently

[32:55] translating the large print voter registration forms into Bengali, Chinese, Korean,

[33:00] Malayalam, Tagalog, and Urdu. For accommodation requests in Executive Order

[33:06] 31, which was signed in 2023 and commits New York State agencies to

[33:12] be a model employer for people with disabilities.

[33:15] We met with Marybeth Schneider from the Chief Disability Office to learn about

[33:19] inclusive internship opportunities, and we also added language to all State Board

[33:25] of Elections job postings stating that we're an inclusive employer and encouraging

[33:30] job applicants to provide feedback on the accessibility of our interview and hiring

[33:34] processes. As Ray mentioned already, for the Training Institute, we're continuing

[33:39] to work with Election Center to review and finalize the poll worker manual,

[33:43] training material, and testing material, and are developing the train-the-trainer

[33:47] manual. And lastly, for poll site accessibility surveys, election law requires that

[33:53] the State Board publish a non-technical guide describing standards for poll site

[33:58] accessibility and adopt a survey tool for counties to use to evaluate the

[34:03] accessibility of their poll sites.

[34:05] The board originally published the non-tech guide in 2010, which, if you can

[34:10] believe it, was 16 years ago. And the survey that was adopted was the 2004

[34:16] ADA Checklist for Polling Places, which was based on 1991 ADA standards.

[34:21] In 2016, an updated ADA checklist for polling places was released based on

[34:28] the most current ADA standards, and we are currently updating the non-technical

[34:33] guide and poll site survey tool to align with the current accessibility standards

[34:38] and disability inclusion practices.

[34:41] The new survey will be 18 fewer pages.

[34:45] The new survey is displayed in a clear chart format, whereas the old survey had

[34:49] questions buried among a bunch of informational text, and it'll give

[34:55] more access to voters with disabilities.

[34:58] Jen, do you have anything else?

[35:03] I'm sorry. Jen, do you have anything or are you guys done?

[35:07] Thank you.

[35:07] Okay. All right. Thank you. Are there any questions?

[35:12] Not hearing any questions, we'll move on to ITU.

[35:17] ITU SEC. I'm not sure what SEC stands for, to be honest with you.

[35:21] That's Laura and Ben.

[35:23] The center.

[35:25] Good morning, commissioners, and that is the Secure Election Center.

[35:28] I'm going to be handling it.

[35:29] Okay. I didn't know. Okay. Thank you.

[35:33] From the ITU internal side of the house

[35:37] good morning. We continue to support frequent upgrades to the Voting

[35:43] Elections Database System. We have

[35:46] responded to upgrades that have been requested as we onboarded new

[35:51] authorities. To date, we have 392 authorities registered in the system, and we have

[35:57] 427 election events that have been reported.

[36:02] With the 2026 filing cycle, our current system has seen a vast increase in the

[36:07] volume and frequency of filing. Our team has adapted that system to

[36:13] the need as the need comes our way. We have kicked off

[36:20] our testing for the phase two release of the AVR system.

[36:26] Right now we are testing that system, reviewing it, and creating documentation for

[36:32] users, both internal and external.

[36:36] Proactively, the team is working on some systems that

[36:42] are going to need upgrade in the near future, so election night reporting or voter

[36:47] lookup, online voter registration, and the electronic filing system are all being

[36:52] roadmapped for upgrade. And in addition to that, we

[36:58] continue to provide support in all aspects of the MTX project as

[37:02] needed. And with that, I'm going to hand it to Ben, unless there's any questions

[37:08] for me.

[37:10] Thank you, Laura. So, beginning recently, we've begun work with our infrastructure

[37:16] team to plan out our data center modernization project, which we hope to start

[37:20] after the election. Turning to our security updates, as the co-executive director's

[37:26] already elaborated, a very successful primary election with a very limited number

[37:31] of events, primarily all power and telecom outages with limited impacts to

[37:37] voting

[37:38] Additionally, to add some color around our security roadshow that we did have a few

[37:43] weeks back, it really was a huge success.

[37:47] I definitely can say that when the only things most can complain about are the

[37:50] cookies and the condiments. And with that, we used that to

[37:56] learn a lot about what we can bring to the counties going forward.

[38:00] And especially that success can be credited to our Division of Homeland Security

[38:05] Services, who we did bring to the tabletop exercises, not just to provide the same

[38:10] exact exercise we've done in the past, but additionally add a new communications

[38:13] component, where we worked to have the officials respond to a specific incident in

[38:19] groups and talk about how they would communicate and who they would communicate

[38:22] with on a particular incident. We do continue to receive feedback, and received it

[38:28] during the event from counties saying this was the best one yet, and we are very

[38:32] appreciative of that. One big change that we made this year that was briefed at the

[38:38] last meeting is that we are looking to increase our engagement with emergency

[38:41] managers. When this first started, it was intended to serve as a way for boards to

[38:46] not just learn about cybersecurity, but to increase their engagement with the

[38:48] county IT directors. I'm proud to say that 75% of counties brought an IT

[38:53] representative to the event, and 41% of counties brought an emergency management

[38:58] representative, which was a great showing considering this was our first attempt to

[39:02] engage with them. We will be continuing to expand our partnership with emergency

[39:07] management in September at the State's Disaster Preparedness Consortium Conference.

[39:12] Myself and another representative from the Division of Homeland Security Services

[39:15] will be presenting on our partnership, and encouraging more emergency management

[39:19] engagement with the elections community, because as we've learned in our work at

[39:25] the state level, a lot of the resources that the counties are relying on that we

[39:30] help coordinate for them actually are held at the county level.

[39:33] So if we can create that direct engagement, we can hopefully get those resources to

[39:37] them quicker because they have those relationships.

[39:40] As always, I do want to thank not just DHS but our other partners that were in

[39:44] attendance. The State Intelligence Center, which presented on their role in

[39:48] supporting the counties, the Information Office of Information Technology Services,

[39:54] several of their executive leadership were in attendance.

[39:57] The Department of Public Service and their emergency response teams, as well as all

[40:01] three FBI field offices in the state were in attendance at the various events.

[40:07] We, as always, are focused on our partnerships with the counties and with those

[40:10] state partners. Myself and Laura will be participating, at the end of this month,

[40:15] in the whole of state cybersecurity call, which will be sent to all

[40:21] municipalities in the state, as well as presenting with those partners and on our

[40:26] own at the State Local Government IT Directors Association at the beginning of

[40:30] October. With that, that's the extent of my report. Questions?

[40:36] Okay. Any questions?

[40:38] In addition to the cookies, at all four sites, commissioners should know this,

[40:45] there was participation across the board.

[40:48] In years past, we've had some long days where it was like pulling teeth, trying to

[40:54] get the participants to take part in this, because it is an interactive exercise,

[40:59] and it was fabulous. Everyone participated, everyone felt involved, and that is a

[41:04] credit to you, so great job.

[41:06] Thank you.

[41:08] Okay. Thank you. Any questions?

[41:11] All right. We're done with the unit updates. I just want to commend all the staff.

[41:15] There were very few questions today, which I think is a compliment to the staff.

[41:20] So we can move on now to old business.

[41:23] Is there any old business to come before the board?

[41:27] Hearing none, I'm going to move on to new business.

[41:29] I know there's some new business to come before the board, and the first one is the

[41:33] upgrade of the Pollbook 10-X system.

[41:38] And I don't know, Jude, do you want to speak to that?

[41:41] I'll let our director, Amy, speak to that.

[41:43] Amy, you going to speak to that?

[41:44] Sure. Okay, go ahead.

[41:46] Sure. Thank you, Commissioner. We received an application for an update to the

[41:52] 10-X electronic poll book system.

[41:54] This is an upgrade to version 6.1.8 and Precinct

[42:00] Central 26.01. About 20 counties use the 10-X system.

[42:05] It has undergone functional and security testing, and we would recommend your

[42:09] approval.

[42:12] Amy, can you just give us a snapshot of what it does, what the upgrade actually

[42:16] does?

[42:18] Sure. There were just some general updates.

[42:21] There was a reported issue, which none of our counties saw in

[42:27] practice in the prior version, but when it went for long periods of time,

[42:33] there was an occurrence that the screen would turn off, so they would have to

[42:36] restart. So they corrected that. There will be no impact to the voter with this

[42:41] update.

[42:42] Okay. So the user interface to all of the voters will look the same.

[42:45] Okay. And they have corrected that.

[42:46] So the voters should not see any difference when they go to vote?

[42:50] No, Commissioner.

[42:51] Okay. Any questions? If there's any questions,

[42:57] I'll entertain those. If not, I'll entertain a motion to approve.

[43:01] So moved.

[43:02] Is there a second?

[43:03] Second. Then seconded. All in favor, aye.

[43:06] Aye.

[43:07] Aye. Opposed? That is carried unanimously.

[43:12] And that is the upgrade. So the next are some regulations.

[43:16] We have a series of regulations, and we can go through them one by one.

[43:20] I believe these are all regulations for final adoption that have been previously

[43:26] before the board for

[43:30] public comment, and I believe they went out for public comment.

[43:34] They were published under public comment.

[43:36] Public comments were received, and they're now back before us for final adoption.

[43:41] Correct me if I'm wrong on any of this, but I believe that's the case on all of

[43:44] these. There's five of them, and I think we should take them one by one so that we

[43:48] all understand what we're voting on. So I don't know who wants to carry this.

[43:54] I'm happy to go through these. I will not be issuing any corrections.

[43:57] You are correct in everything you said about these, so we can go through them one

[44:01] at a time.

[44:01] I'm sorry, Kevin. What did you just say?

[44:04] I said there is no correction to anything you said.

[44:06] Really?

[44:07] You're accurate in everything you said. "I was correct in everything I said," I believe is what you said. Is that right?

[44:11] Yeah.

[44:11] Thank you, Kevin. Thank you. Okay. Let's go again. So you're going to do this.

[44:16] Are you going to- This meeting is being recorded, so it's-

[44:19] That's great. I just want to make sure I heard that correctly. That's all.

[44:24] So we can go through these one by one.

[44:25] Make sure it's noted in the minutes.

[44:26] Great. That's even better. It's on video, so this is all good.

[44:29] Kevin, do you want to start with the first one?

[44:31] These are regulations on the Fair Campaign Code.

[44:34] Sure, absolutely. So just as a refresher on this one, what we did was implemented

[44:40] some regulatory changes in order to effectively mirror a lot of the provisions

[44:46] of our existing HAVA complaint procedures in the Fair Campaign Code violation

[44:51] procedures because the actual procedure in a Fair Campaign Code complaint that went

[44:56] to a hearing wasn't particularly spelled out, and the HAVA regulations had much

[45:01] more substance as far as that procedure.

[45:04] So we thought it would be prudent to adopt a number of those procedures and mirror

[45:09] that general structure for the hearings and the remainder of

[45:16] those sort of proceedings within the Fair Campaign Code.

[45:18] So we received no comment on these, and there was one minor single-word

[45:24] change that was an error or typo that we have corrected in this draft,

[45:30] where the word hearing was changed to transcript, just for clarity.

[45:35] But that is the only change from the initial adoption.

[45:39] How many of these Fair Campaign Code hearings do we have a year?

[45:43] Hearings?

[45:44] Yep.

[45:44] I don't believe we have had one in-- We certainly haven't had one since I joined

[45:49] the board. I don't know when the last time we would've had one would be.

[45:52] Yeah, I don't remember either.

[45:53] We receive the complaints-

[45:57] Right ... on the cadence of maybe a handful a year, but none of them have moved to the

[46:01] stage of holding a hearing.

[46:03] Okay. So it's unusual to even get to this stage, is that what you're saying?

[46:07] Exceedingly unusual, yes.

[46:09] Okay. Any questions on this from any of the commissioners?

[46:13] If not, I'll entertain a motion to adopt.

[46:16] So moved.

[46:17] Second.

[46:18] Moved and seconded. All in favor, aye.

[46:20] Aye.

[46:21] All aye. Opposed? That is carried unanimously.

[46:24] We'll move on to regulation number two, which is the write-in vote regulation.

[46:29] I believe this is to reflect a statutory change. Is that correct?

[46:33] That's correct, Commissioner. The statute was changed to permit a write-in vote to

[46:38] be counted on a ballot where that name already appeared as one of the options to

[46:43] vote for, and our regulations need to change accordingly.

[46:47] Okay. Any questions? If not, I'll entertain a motion to adopt

[46:52] So moved.

[46:53] Second.

[46:54] Moved and seconded. All in favor, aye. Aye.

[46:57] Aye. Aye.

[46:58] Opposed? Opposed. That's carried unanimously as well.

[47:02] Move on to the third regulation.

[47:04] These are voter registration

[47:09] transmittals. Okay, so

[47:12] can you speak to that, Kevin? What's this do?

[47:15] Certainly. This regulation is the requirement of county boards to effectively

[47:19] submit a summary of the transmittals that have come to the

[47:25] state board. We're simply making a change to say that they would be able to be

[47:30] submitted on a monthly basis as opposed to a weekly basis.

[47:35] We think it would be of benefit to the county boards.

[47:38] We obviously already are aware of these and could determine these numbers if we

[47:43] needed to during the pendency, but we think monthly is a far more reasonable

[47:48] timeframe to be providing these summaries.

[47:51] Okay, so this is just a single word change from weekly to monthly. Correct?

[47:55] Correct. Okay. Again, any questions? If not, I'll entertain a motion to adopt. So moved.

[48:01] Second.

[48:02] Moved and seconded. All in favor, aye.

[48:05] Aye. Aye.

[48:05] Aye.

[48:06] Opposed? That again is carried unanimously.

[48:10] Now we move on to the fourth regulation.

[48:13] This is

[48:17] conflict of interest. So this is a new provision, right? This is a new regulation?

[48:21] Is that correct?

[48:23] Yes.

[48:23] Yeah. This was adopted by the state legislature, and we were empowered to provide

[48:28] regulations. Well, you can speak to it briefly.

[48:30] This is about conflict of interest with Board of Elections employees, correct?

[48:35] Yes.

[48:35] Yeah. It's to prevent Board of Election employees from conflicts of interest, and a

[48:41] major focus of that is for Board of Elections employees to avoid direct

[48:46] financial interests in vendors and other outside

[48:52] employment that would potentially create conflicts within the board within their

[48:57] duties, and the procedure by which employees in those limited circumstances

[49:03] where they are permitted to theoretically wear two hats, would be able to seek that

[49:08] permission from the respective commissioners of the board.

[49:12] Okay. Are there any questions on this

[49:16] regulation? Hearing none, I'd entertain a motion to adopt.

[49:22] So moved.

[49:22] Second. Moved and seconded. All in favor, aye.

[49:26] Aye. Aye.

[49:26] Aye. Opposed? Again, carried unanimously.

[49:31] And now the final regulation, and this one is on the drop boxes.

[49:34] Again, this is a new regulation, correct?

[49:37] Correct.

[49:38] And this is something the legislature adopted, and these are regulations to enact

[49:42] the drop box procedure in New York State. So go ahead.

[49:47] You can speak to that.

[49:48] Yes. Of course. The state board was tasked with providing and promulgating

[49:54] regulations relating to drop boxes that

[49:59] involve a significant number of provisions about the drop box design, other various

[50:04] requirements for the drop boxes relating to security and structure, how they need

[50:10] to be secured, where they would be located, video surveillance,

[50:16] hours for pickup of the ballots, and just a number of general

[50:21] provisions relating to those. So what I would like to mention

[50:28] is that we did receive a number of public comment on these, which is different, I

[50:34] would say, from our normal procedure. We, if anything, receive only one or two.

[50:40] We received a significant number for this one.

[50:43] I will say that, for the record, we did go through and consider each of the public

[50:48] comments. We did try to ensure that where any of the public comments brought up

[50:54] some substantive suggestions that, to our belief, they are already

[50:59] reflected in the draft regulations, and we believe strongly that those

[51:05] substantive comments are already reflected within the draft language.

[51:10] It's also worth noting that the State Board of Elections will be promulgating a

[51:16] sample chain of custody form that we hope will be utilized by the respective

[51:22] counties that implement these drop boxes, and that the State Board of Elections is

[51:27] also tasked with approving standards for chain of

[51:32] custody with regard to the ballots that the respective counties would need to

[51:36] submit to us for approval. So there are still additional layers

[51:41] beyond even the text of this regulation to ensure additional security

[51:47] with regard to these drop boxes, should counties wish to adopt and implement them.

[51:52] But I did want to just mention that we did receive and review, and take those

[51:58] comments very seriously. So we appreciate those comments from the public, and with

[52:03] that, I would

[52:06] suggest that they are prepared to be voted on.

[52:09] Okay. I appreciate it. My understanding is that while we did appreciate the

[52:14] comments, and they were substantive, that we didn't make any changes in the

[52:19] proposed regulations because the feeling was that the proposed regulations already

[52:25] covered the matters that were raised in those comments.

[52:27] So while you won't see any changes here, it's not that we ignored the comments, but

[52:32] that we just felt those issues had already been resolved.

[52:35] Are there any questions about this regulation from the commissioners?

[52:40] If not, then I would entertain a motion to approve. So moved.

[52:45] Second.

[52:45] Moved and seconded. All in favor, aye.

[52:49] Aye.

[52:50] Opposed? I hear none, so it is again adopted unanimously.

[52:56] That really concludes all the business before the State Board of Elections.

[53:00] No, it helps.

[53:02] What else? Hold on. I'm not done. Hold on. Easy, guys. Easy.

[53:07] There is one other matter that comes before just myself and Commissioner Berger, I

[53:12] believe. Is that correct?

[53:16] You are correct, Commissioner.

[53:17] Okay. So can someone just go through with that?

[53:21] That is something to do with, and I don't completely understand this, it doesn't

[53:25] really make a lot of sense to me, but maybe somebody can explain it briefly.

[53:29] Apparently, Commissioner Berger and I have been empowered by the state legislature

[53:34] to decide how much money's needed for the public campaign finance system in this

[53:40] state. Is that correct?

[53:42] Periodically, we have to do that.

[53:45] Yeah. We have to certify the amounts that may be required by the Public Campaign Finance

[53:50] Board for matching funds.

[53:51] And someone-

[53:53] And you and I have to vote on that

[53:54] And someone besides you and I come up with that number, is that correct?

[53:59] Yes.

[54:01] Yes. So-

[54:01] Commissioner, that number is what if all of the committees currently active in the

[54:07] system were to max out what they could be paid out under the statute, that's the

[54:12] number we would require.

[54:13] And is there sufficient money in the budget to-

[54:15] $59 million

[54:16] ... is there sufficient money in the budget to cover that cost?

[54:21] Yes.

[54:21] Okay. Okay, and what is that number?

[54:25] The number is $59 million.

[54:28] $59 million. So Henry, you and I have control over $59 million right here.

[54:35] Yes, we do. And either one of us could kill it by not voting for this.

[54:42] So I would entertain a motion to adopt this,

[54:47] and I'll actually do it.

[54:48] Me too. I move and you have to second it.

[54:50] I'll make the motion. How's that?

[54:52] I'll second it.

[54:52] And it's seconded, and there's no more discussion because I think we've already

[54:57] done that, so I vote aye.

[55:01] Then I'll vote aye also.

[55:02] And Commissioner Berger votes aye, so it's a unanimous vote.

[55:05] So that is the last piece of business to come before us, I believe, unless

[55:11] there's a need for an executive session.

[55:14] There's no need, Commissioner.

[55:15] Okay. If there's no need, then we can make a motion to adjourn.

[55:19] And I would just, before we adjourn, note to everybody that following this meeting,

[55:22] there will be a meeting of the Public Campaign Finance Board.

[55:26] And for those of you who are of interest, you can join that I believe immediately

[55:31] following us, soon thereafter. Public Campaign Finance Board will be meeting.

[55:37] So, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved.

[55:41] Second. It's moved and seconded. All in favor, aye.

[55:44] Aye.

[55:45] Aye.

[55:45] That's unanimous, and the meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much.

[55:51] Thank you.

New York State Board of Elections Commissioners' Meeting - September 2, 2026

Transcript