O'Mara legislation to reduce costs for local boards of elections becomes law

Albany, N.Y., August 5—Legislation sponsored this year by New York State Senator Tom O’Mara (R-C, Big Flats) to provide cost savings to localities by reducing the time local boards of elections are required to store unopened and unused election ballots, has been signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

“It’s another step to relieve the unnecessary and costly financial burdens imposed by many current state laws,” said O’Mara, chairman of the Senate Elections Committee. 

O’Mara said that previous state law required local and county boards of elections to store sealed packages of unused and wholly blank election ballots including special federal, local, special presidential, absentee and military, and emergency ballots for two years after an election.

The new law (S.5211/A.6767-A, Chapter 282 of the Laws of 2011) will reduce the amount of storage time from two years to four months, thereby reducing, significantly in some cases, the local costs associated with warehousing excessive amounts of unused and unopened election ballots.