State Board of Elections to Get More Aggressive on Enforcement

The Times Union reports that the State Board of Elections (SBOE) is taking steps to freeze the bank accounts of campaign committees that have been found by a court to be in violation of the state Election Law.

SBOE’s Bureau of Election Law Enforcement will send letters to the treasurers of campaign committees that have had judgments lodged against them, as well the banks that hold their funds, informing them that their campaign funds will not be accessible until they have resolved their legal problems (and paid any accompanying fines).

In the big picture, this is a pretty small step by SBOE.  There are more than 4,000 groups facing unsatisfied judgments against them, and a good government group said earlier this year that it found over 100,000 violations of the Election Law in 2011 and 2012.

It is not hard to conclude that SBOE is feeling some heat from the appointment of the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption, whose charge includes considering the “adequacy and enforcement of the State’s election laws.”