Congresswoman Tenney Demands Answers from NY Board of Elections Regarding Non-Compliance with Federal Election Law

Washington, DC – Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (NY-22), founder and co-chair of the Election Integrity Caucus in Congress, today led a letter to the co-chairs of the New York State Board of Elections, Peter Kosinski and Douglas Kellner, demanding answers about the state’s non-compliance with the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA), which requires states to collect critical personally identifiable information (PII) when accepting voter registrations. Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (NY-21) also joined the letter.

Under HAVA, voter registration applications must be complete with a unique identifier, or PII, such as the last 4 digits of an individual’s Social Security Number or a driver’s license number if an individual has one. However, a recent report from the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) outlined New York’s failure to comply with HAVA, including by maintaining more than 3.1 million New York voter registrations without any form of PII.

PII is used to verify the identity of registrants. It is also key for good voter roll maintenance, as it is used to accurately update voter rolls when an individual moves to a different state, passes away, or even files duplicate voter registrations, either when moving within the same state or otherwise. Without PII, matching one John or Jane Doe to another is an incredibly difficult task that could lead to ineligible voters remaining on the rolls, voters registering in multiple states, or a voter receiving more than one opportunity to vote in a given election.

Earlier this month, Congresswoman Tenney led a letter to the Federal Department of Justice (DOJ) demanding the Department enforce HAVA and ensure New York and other states were in full compliance ahead of the midterm elections.

In part, the lawmakers wrote, “The PILF report also highlights that New York was among the worst states in the nation regarding compliance with Section 303(a). In New York, 23% of the voter roll was missing PII. Comparatively, the second state listed for noncompliance—Washington—was missing 469,000 PIIs, or just 10% of the state voter roll. This disparity is particularly curious because, in 2005, the New York State Board of Elections resolved to “use the voter registration system developed in the State of Washington as a model.”[1] But since 2005, Washington has continued to advance and improve its voter registration system, including through their membership to the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), while it is clear New York is falling behind.”

The full text of the letter is available here.

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