State Board of Elections Seeking Associate Enforcement Counsel

The State Board of Elections (SBOE) has posted a notice for an Associate Counsel who will support the Chief Enforcement Counsel.

The duties and responsibilities of the position include:

• Coordinating all phases of the investigation and referral of criminal violations of the Elections Law to ensure a successful prosecution;
• Assisting in determining case selection in addition to planning of the overall audit and investigation strategy in cooperation with Audit and Investigations staff;
• Ensuring that evidence gathered will be admissible in court;
• Ensuring candidates and witnesses constitutional rights are not violated;
• Rendering advice on current or proposed investigation and audit techniques;
• Assisting in the development of statewide projects to detect voter fraud in cooperation with the Investigative Analyst;
• Assisting in developing strategies to obtain records from candidates, committees or their legal representatives, and third parties;
• Maintaining contact with county District Attorneys and New York State Office of the Attorney General;
• Conducting hearings before independent hearing officers of non-criminal violations of the Election Law to ensure professional litigations;
• Drafting, filing and litigating Special Proceedings in the Supreme Court.

We have seen some activity from the SBOE’s enforcement unit in recent months (some examples are here, here and here). But adding a staff counsel to help investigate and refer criminal violations of the Election Law and conduct hearings for non-criminal violations may be an indication that we will soon be seeing much more from SBOE in terms of enforcement activities in the near future.