New York State Changes Election Night Procedures

The reporting of voting results in New York state may be expedited as a result of a law signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

The law is designed to improve election night procedures followed by county boards of election.

According to the governor's office, portable memory devices can be used instead of handwritten tallying to gather unofficial returns to be transmitted to a board of elections.

The memory devices already are utilized in the electronic voting machines that have been put into use in recent years.

In the past, poll workers were required to use a cumbersome process to canvass the results of each election district.

The information then was entered into official databases before it would be released to the Associated Press.

According to Cuomo's office, the process caused errors and delays in reporting election results.