New York Codes, Rules and Regulations › Title 9 - EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT › Subtitle V - State Board of Elections › Part 6210 - Routine Maintenance and Testing of Voting Systems, Operational Procedures, and Standards for Determining Valid Votes › Section 6210.13 - Standards for determining valid votes

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 28, July 10, 2024
The State Board hereby adopts the following regulations to
				  provide for uniform, non discriminatory standards for establishing what
				  constitutes a vote and what shall be counted as a vote for all categories of
				  voting systems and voting procedures used in New York.
The following standards shall apply in determining whether a
				  ballot has been properly voted and whether a vote should be counted for any
				  office or ballot question.
(a) The
				following general standards shall apply in the counting of all ballots and
				votes, regardless of the voting system used:
(1) A ballot that is marked or signed by the
				voter in such a way that it can be identified from other ballots must be voided
				and none of its votes counted. Examples of such markings include, but are not
				limited to: voter signature, initials, voter name and address, voter
				identification number, messages or text, or unusual markings not related to
				indication of the vote choice for a contest. If there are distinctly
				identifiable markings on one page of a multiple-page ballot, the entire ballot
				must be voided.
(2) A vote for any
				candidate or ballot measure shall not be rejected solely because the voter
				failed to follow instructions for marking the ballot. If, for any reason, it is
				impossible to determine the choice of the voter for any candidate or ballot
				question, the vote for that candidate or ballot question shall be considered
				void.
(3) A mark is considered
				valid when it is clear that it represents the voter's choice and is the
				technique consistently used by the voter to indicate his or her selections.
				Such marks may include, but are not limited to, properly filled in voting
				position targets, cross mark "X", a checkmark "[TICK]"", circles, completed
				open arrow "<- ", or any other clear indication of the voter's choice.
(i) A mark crossed out by the voter, an
				erasure, or words such as no next to a candidate's name or a voting position
				target area for a ballot question shall not be considered to be a valid vote
				but will, instead, be deemed an indication that the voter did not choose to
				cast a vote for that candidate or measure and the vote for that candidate or
				proposition shall be considered void.
(4) In determining the validity of a
				partially filled-in voting position target area, the consistency of a voter's
				marks on the entire ballot shall be taken into consideration. A hesitation mark
				such as a dot in the voting position target area shall not be considered a
				valid mark unless it is demonstrated that the voter consistently marked his or
				her ballot in such a manner.
(5)
				Overvote. If a contest is marked with a greater number of choices of different
				candidates or ballot questions than the number for which he or she is lawfully
				entitled to vote, the vote shall not be counted for that contest, but shall be
				counted in all other contests in which there are no overvotes and the voter's
				choice can be clearly determined.
(6) Undervote. If a contest is marked with a
				lesser number of choices of candidates or ballot questions than the number for
				which he or she is lawfully entitled to vote, the votes cast for all otherwise
				properly marked candidates or ballot questions shall be counted.
(7) If a ballot is marked in each of two or
				more target areas or sensitive areas for a candidate whose name appears on the
				ballot more than once for the same office, and the total number of votes cast
				for such race for different candidates does not exceed the number for which he
				or she is lawfully entitled to vote, only the first vote for such candidate
				with multiple markings shall be counted for such candidate.
(8) Ballots that are damaged, torn by the
				Board of Elections or its agents, or otherwise non-machine processable as
				submitted by the voter, shall be manually counted by a bipartisan team of
				election inspectors and such vote totals shall be added to the canvass of such
				other valid ballots for the respective office(s) and ballot
				questions.
(9) Unintended machine
				marks placed on a ballot by the voting system that are not made at the
				direction of the voter shall not invalidate the ballot.
(10) If two or more persons are to be
				nominated or elected to the same office or position, a voter may vote for one
				or more persons whose names do appear on the ballot and one or more persons
				whose names do not appear on the ballot, provided that the total number of
				votes cast by the voter for that office or position does not exceed the number
				of persons to be elected or nominated to such office or position.
(11) Abandoned ballot.
(i) If a voter leaves the voting machine or
				system without casting their ballot, a bipartisan team of election inspectors
				shall cause the ballot to be cast as the voter left it, without examining the
				ballot.
(ii) If a voter leaves
				their paper ballot in a privacy booth and leaves the polling place without
				first casting that ballot on the voting device, such ballot shall be marked
				spoiled and retained by the election inspectors, accounted for in the statement
				of canvass, and returned in secure storage with such other spoiled ballots to
				the county board.
(12)
				Write-in votes are votes cast for a person or persons whose name(s) do not
				appear on the official ballot.
(i) Write-in
				votes for persons who names appear on the official ballot for that office or
				party position shall not be counted.
(ii) A write-in vote may be cast by the use
				of a name stamp.
(iii) A write-in
				vote must be cast in the appropriate place on the machine, or it shall be void
				and not counted.
(iv) A voter need
				not write in the first and last name of a candidate in every situation; the
				standard is whether the election inspectors can reasonably determine the intent
				of the voter when they cast their ballot.
(13) If a ballot is received that is a
				Federal write-in absentee ballot (pursuant to
				42
				USC section 1973ff-2), the county board
				shall canvass the ballot as follows:
(i) If
				the overseas voter designated a candidate by writing in the name of the
				candidate or writing in the name of a political party, the vote is counted for
				the candidate of that party.
(ii)
				If the overseas voter wrote in only the last name of a candidate whose name
				appears on the ballot, the vote is counted for that candidate.
(iii) If the voter wrote in the name of only
				a candidate for president or only a candidate for vice-president whose name
				appears on the ballot, the vote is counted for the electors of that candidate.
				The name is entered into the canvass as the official ballot name of the
				presidential candidate.
(iv)
				Abbreviations, misspellings or other minor variations in the form of the name
				of a candidate or political party shall be disregarded if the intention of the
				voter can be ascertained. The name is entered into the canvass so that its
				spelling matches the spelling of the candidate's official ballot name. If it is
				impossible to determine the voter's choice of a candidate or candidates for an
				office upon the official ballot, such vote shall not be counted, but shall be
				returned as a blank vote.