State of New York

New York Ballot Rejection Practices

DCCC v. Kosinski

Lawsuit filed on behalf of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) challenging multiple New York election practices that lead to a high rejection rate of absentee ballots for reasons unrelated to a voter’s eligibility. Specifically, the DCCC challenges the state’s failure to provide opportunities to fix absentee ballots with curable defects that are not currently defined as “curable” under New York law, even though these defects are easy to address and should not result in disenfranchisement, along with its practice of rejecting ballots that are invalid solely because a voter followed an election officials’ incorrect directions, because ballots were cast outside of the voter’s registered county or polling district or because the ballot is missing a postmark from the U.S. Postal Service. After the preliminary injunction stage, the court ordered local boards of elections to give voters the opportunity to cure mail-in ballots missing postmarks but received between two and seven days after Election Day. On March 2, 2023, the case was dismissed.

Case Documents

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