A 9235: Removes the preclearance requirement from certain counties regarding covered policies regarding elections.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 9235 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN ASSEMBLY November 7, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. SLATER -- read once and referred to the Committee on Election Law AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to removing the preclear- ance requirement from certain counties The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision 3 of section 17-210 of the election law, as 2 amended by chapter 216 of the laws of 2024, is amended to read as 3 follows: 4 3. Covered entity. A "covered entity" shall include: (a) any political 5 subdivision which, within the previous twenty-five years, has become 6 subject to a court order or government enforcement action based upon a 7 finding of any violation of this title, the federal voting rights act, 8 the fifteenth amendment to the United States constitution, or a voting- 9 related violation of the fourteenth amendment to the United States 10 constitution; (b) any political subdivision which, within the previous 11 twenty-five years, has become subject to at least three court orders or 12 government enforcement actions based upon a finding of any violation of 13 any state or federal civil rights law or the fourteenth amendment to the 14 United States constitution concerning discrimination against members of 15 a protected class; (c) [any county in which, based on data provided by 16 the division of criminal justice services, the combined misdemeanor and 17 felony arrest rate of voting age members of any protected class consist- 18 ing of at least ten thousand citizens of voting age or whose members 19 comprise at least ten percent of the citizen voting age population of 20 the county, exceeds the proportion that the protected class constitutes 21 of the citizen voting age population of the county as a whole by at 22 least twenty percentage points at any point within the previous ten 23 years; (d)] any political subdivision in which, based on data made 24 available by the United States census, the dissimilarity index of any 25 protected class consisting of at least twenty-five thousand citizens of EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD13674-01-5 
 A. 9235 2 1 voting age or whose members comprise at least ten percent of the citizen 2 voting age population of the political subdivision, is in excess of 3 fifty with respect to non-Hispanic white individuals within the poli- 4 tical subdivision at any point within the previous ten years; [(e)] (d) 5 any political subdivision in which a board of elections has been estab- 6 lished, if such political subdivision contains a covered entity fully 7 within its borders; or [(f)] (e) any board of elections that has been 8 established in a political subdivision that is a covered entity pursuant 9 to paragraph (a), (b), (c), or (d) [or (e)] of this subdivision. 10 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.