Citizens Union Blasts State Board of Elections for Investigative Failures

New York City-based Good government group Citizens Union (CU) criticized the State Board of Elections (SBOE) today for its failure to follow through on a complaint CU filed with the SBOE in 2012.

In November 2012, CU called for the SBOE to investigate the alleged “electioneering” by an Assemblymember at a polling place during a primary election.

The group also pointed out that the SBOE has failed to look into CU’s 2013 report which found that more than 200 New York City political clubs have failed to file as “political committees” with the state.

CU Executive Director Dick Dadey said:

“The handling of this complaint by the City and State Board and their joint failure to exercise their own authority and conduct an investigation and the State Board’s inaction on 224 political clubs registration demonstrates why Governor Cuomo and the legislative leaders must reform the Board of Elections as part of comprehensive campaign finance reform.  Despite the scathing review of how the State Board handles complaints by the Moreland Commission, little appears to have changed at the State Board.”

As part of his Executive Budget proposal, Gov. Cuomo proposed the creation of an independent Election Law enforcement unit with the SBOE.

As of this writing, no agreement on campaign finance reform or ethics issues has been announced.