Marc Zell, RO Legal Counsel, Convinces New York to Ease Voter Registration Restrictions

Marc Zell, RO Chair Israel and RO Legal Counsel, convinced the New York State Board of Elections to register overseas Americans without having to submit both an electronic and hard copy of the voter registration. Due to the issues with global airmail, this was a limiting factor in voter registration.

As a result of a complaint that Marc Zell filed with the NY State Board of Elections, NY has agreed to a compromise which will enable NY voters to register and request their absentee ballots by e-mail without having to send their applications by snail mail (referred to by NY election officials as a “wet copy”) before a ballot is emailed or snail-mailed. Under the compromise, the FPCA can be filed by email and a ballot will be sent. Persons already registered in NY can simply send in their absentee ballots. Persons registering for the first time or whose registrations may have expired, will also receive their absentee ballots but will be required to send in the hard copy of the FPCA along with their ballots. The exact procedure needs to be clarified in order to protect ballot secrecy.