PRESS RELEASES

Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Assemblywoman Paulin’s Election Reform Bill Passes Both Houses

Assemblywoman Amy Paulin’s legislation (A.1001) to amend the absentee ballot voting process in New York State has been passed in both the Assembly and the Senate. This bill will allow voters to use abbreviations or initials when signing their names on absentee ballots. Under current law, voters must sign absentee ballots in the exact same way that they signed when they first registered to vote, meaning they risk having their votes not counted if they sign absentee ballots with initials but signed their full name when first registering.

The motivation for this legislation came from the Irvington Mayoral race of 2005. In this election, Susan Brenner Morton’s vote, which would have broken a tie between candidates Dennis Flood and Erin Malloy, was disqualified because she signed her absentee ballot envelope “Susan B. Morton” when she was registered as “Susan Brenner Morton.” As a result, the election was decided by a coin toss in Flood’s favor.

“Voting is the foundation of our democracy,” said Paulin. “To disenfranchise people because of an unreasonable technicality is wholly unacceptable, and my legislation will change this,” she concluded.

The legislation is now on the Governor’s desk for signature.