NY BOE Refers Campaign Donation Violations to Prosecutors

Today, the New York Board of Elections referred possible 2012 campaign finance violations involving three campaign committees and 20 corporate donors to prosecutors.

Their identities will be made public after the entities have been notified, likely in about three weeks, according to Board Co-Chair Douglas Kellner.

The three campaign committees referred for potential prosecution all allegedly received too much in contributions and the corporations cited allegedly gave more than the $5,000 limit.

Kellner said the slate referred to the DA made an improvement over past referrals by culling out charges that were outside the two-year statute of limitations for such violations.  The board’s criticism of what was characterized as DAs’ failure to take up its referrals prompted a scathing response from Albany County DA David Soares.

But the real issue is the two-year statute of limitations.  The current statue begins after the election.  But the board's department that does the review, only 4 members, has to wait until all the campaigns file the end-of-campaign reports that can take 6 months or longer.

So many possible violators get a pass because their notice comes after the two year limitation statue.

The statue needs to be changed to begin after the filing period.










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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NY Online Voter Registration

New York unveiled an online voter registration system that allows residents to become voters from their own computers, and eventually from new electronic devices at Department of Motor Vehicles offices.

New voters can even cast ballots in next month’s primaries if they register and enroll in a party online by Sunday, said Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi. Today is the in-person registration deadline at DMV and Board of Elections offices.

Applicants need a driver’s license or a non-driver’s identification card number to register through the Web site, where they can also change their address and party enrollment.

The DMV will then transfer their information from their systems, including their signature, to the Board of Elections. The board will still have to do their due process to verify the information before they become registered voters. With the transferred signature the voter does not have to be in-person to register and the board will be able to print the poll books with the required signatures.

The board is looking into creating an electronic poll book. This will allow the poll worker to bring up the voter's signature and photo from the DMV database, plus the relevant data to verify the voter is in the right place and gets the correct ballot.

UPDATE
Some call this progress!

To start, when someone fills out a registration form, the DMV will print out the document and snail-mail the paper to the proper board, where clerks will type in the data by hand. This counts as progress because you can register from home.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us