{"id":193402,"date":"2026-04-11T14:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T14:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/193402\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T14:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T14:50:08","slug":"watchdog-gop-lawmaker-warn-ny-voter-registration-systems-lacks-key-safeguards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/193402\/","title":{"rendered":"Watchdog, GOP lawmaker warn NY voter registration systems lacks key safeguards"},"content":{"rendered":"

One blue state is failing to enact adequate voting safeguards and refusing to correct its mistakes ahead of November\u2019s\u00a0midterm elections,\u00a0<\/a>an election integrity watchdog warns.<\/p>\n

Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE), a nonpartisan organization focused on election security, alleges the New York State Board of Elections <\/a>(NYSBOE) stonewalled a request to fix the state\u2019s voter registration form to comply with federal voting law.<\/p>\n

The watchdog sent the NYSBOE a letter in late 2025 outlining several violations they claimed could undermine the state\u2019s election integrity if left unaddressed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After the board failed to correct most of the violations, RITE and Tenney are demanding<\/a> the board hand over comprehensive records and data to identify additional shortcomings in the state\u2019s voter registration system.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cYour lack of a response is troubling and disregards the need to ensure public trust that New York is maintaining accurate voter rolls as required by federal law,\u201d they wrote in a letter to the NYSBOE earlier this week that was obtained by Fox News Digital.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., has accused the New York State Board of Elections of failing to implement adequate safeguards in its voter registration system Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n

If the board does not meet their May 2026 deadline, RITE and Tenney say they are prepared to go to federal court to enforce compliance with federal law.<\/p>\n

The watchdog alleges two errors in New York State\u2019s\u00a0voter registration forms<\/a>\u00a0that violate the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).<\/p>\n

First, New York State did not instruct individuals that they must provide their driver\u2019s license information if they have one. It also continued registering individuals who did not provide a driver\u2019s license, the last four digits of their Social Security number or a declaration that the applicant has neither, as required by federal law.<\/p>\n

These errors have, in part, led to millions of\u00a0New York voters<\/a>\u00a0providing incomplete information during the registration process, making it more difficult for the state to accurately maintain voter lists, according to RITE.<\/p>\n

A 2022 report found 3.1 million New York voters lacked required ID on registration forms. Michael Nagle<\/p>\n

RITE and and Tenney also allege the board did not perform a requested audit to identify how many incomplete voter registration applications have been processed.<\/p>\n

A 2022 report from the conservative Public Interest Legal Foundation found that at least 3.1 million New York registered voters have not provided a driver\u2019s license or Social Security number on their application form.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe law is clear: states may not accept registration forms that lack required identifying information,\u201d RITE President Justin Riemer said in a statement. New York\u2019s own regulations direct officials to do exactly that. This flagrant violation of an important federal safeguard significantly erodes the integrity of New York\u2019s voter registration system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are committed to getting answers about the breadth of the problem and ensuring the state fixes it,\u201d Riemer added.<\/p>\n

Governor Kathy Hochul speaking at the Annual National Action Network Convention on April 8, 2026. Andrew Schwartz \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

Tenney, who is chair of the Election Integrity Caucus, said she has called for an investigation into the NYSBOE since 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cTransparency and accurate voter rolls are essential to maintaining public trust in our elections,\u201d the New York Republican said in a statement. \u201cThe people of New York deserve answers, accountability, and full compliance with HAVA to ensure the integrity of every vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0New York City\u00a0Board of Elections system has also come under recent scrutiny for failing to enact adequate safeguards.<\/p>\n

One of its employees declined to block a reporter who was posing as a noncitizen from attempting to register to vote, according to\u00a0video footage\u00a0obtained by Fox News Digital in February.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One blue state is failing to enact adequate voting safeguards and refusing to correct its mistakes ahead of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[888,57,13305,9,24,55,54,56,58,66439,4727],"class_list":["post-193402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-claudia-tenney","tag-metro","tag-midterm-elections","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-us-news","tag-voter-fraud","tag-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}