A bill that has begun to move through the state Legislature would extend the period between primary and run-off elections in New York City from two to three weeks. Run-off contests are held when no candidate in a citywide primary receives at least 40 percent of the vote. The top two candidates then face each other in a run-off. They’ve caused some difficulty since the state switched to optical scan ballots in 2010, as it takes some time to print a new batch and reprogram the machines. Earlier this year, the city Board of Elections said it might need to rely on the state’s antiquated lever machines in order to deal with the quick turnaround.
“It causes great confusion when, if you’re going to vote, every once in a while a different voting system is used and people are not familiar with it, people are not familiar with how to use it, and that can cause a whole host of errors,” Assemblyman Robert Carroll of Brooklyn said of the lever machines. “They’re so infrequent, they’re really not used at all — I think the last time they were used was 2013 — you then wonder whether they are actually functional.”
The bill, which Carroll sponsors, would give the board more time to prepare for an optical scan vote and thus decrease the possibility that it would need to vacuum the mothballs out of the lever machines.
Full Article: Albany might delay New York City run-off elections.