Dustin M. Czarny

My Testimony Joint Legislative Hearing on 2025 Exec. Budget Proposal: Local Government – 02/04/2025

I participated in a panel in the Joint Legislative Hearing on 2025 Exec. Budget Proposal: Local Government. I along with my good government colleagues from Brennan Center, NYS League of Women Voters, Fair Elections NY, and Common Cause NY argued for direct NY funding of county boards of elections as well as funding the NYS Board of Elections.

My written testimony is below:

Testimony before The New York State Assembly & New York State Senate

Joint Legislative Budget Hearing on Local Government

Tuesday, February 6, 2024. 9:30 AM

Dustin M. Czarny, NYSECA Democratic Caucus Chair, Commissioner (D) Onondaga County

Thank you for letting me testify today. My name is Dustin Czarny, and I am an Elections Commissioner in Onondaga County and the Democratic Caucus Chair of the New York State Elections Commissioner Association. NYSECA represents the diverse sixty-two counties throughout New York State. I am proud of our bi-partisan Election Board system, and this is a model that should be followed nationwide. The Democratic and Republican Commissioners must work together to ensure the integrity of our election system. The built-in checks and balances help NY avoid the partisan battles we see unfolding in other States. Commissioners must find ways to put partisan ideologies aside to meet the needs of the voters.

The Board of Elections has faced many hurdles over the last few years and has risen to the challenge. Since 2019 we have implemented election reforms such as Early Voting, Electronic Pollbooks, Universal transfer of registrations. We have administered one of the highest turnout Presidential elections in modern history. We have revamped a robust system of delivering absentee ballots to voters at the highest volume in NYS history. Implementing a cure system to prevent accidental disenfranchisement of absentee voters over technical deficiencies. We have done all that in the middle of a multi-year pandemic that challenged the very nature of our mostly in-person voting system and put the health of our election workers at risk. While no system that is made up of human workers is without its flaws, our Boards have risen to the challenge, and kept our electoral system afloat in New York.

The Executive budget has many positive aspects which I will detail later in this testimony. However, there are two glaring needs for 2024 that it is silent on: Temporary workers and public information campaigns to service the Presidential Election. At the close of 2023 many counties refused the budget requests of their bi-partisan election commissioners to increase staff. In some cases, they refused to provide adequate money even for the bare minimum to field election inspectors. This has set up a dangerous situation as we head into what may be the highest turnout election in our generation. In 2024 we will be implementing Early Vote by mail for the first time. Other reforms such as online voter registration, pre-canvass of absentees, and expanded Early Voting will experience their first Presidential Election. Increase turnout and registration along with new reforms will tax the resources of many Boards of Elections. We need an additional $10 million Aid to Localities grant to be distributed by the NYS Board of Elections to host counties with the express purpose and permission to hire temporary workers and fund informational campaigns so we can administer an orderly Presidential Election in the fall.

The Executive budget comes a long way for providing the necessary funding for the New York State Board of Elections. This is righting many years of misery when it comes to funding the State Board of Elections. It is a welcome and crucial step as the State Board of Elections will be a vital partner for County Boards. The State Board of Elections will shoulder the burden of Online and Automatic voter registration as well as tracking of our absentee ballots and the Campaign and Public Finance systems. The budget also properly funds the new Public Campaign finance Board and its mission to level the playing field for small donors in New York politics.

In 2024 we face implementing the expansive New York Early Voting by Mail reform in the middle of the Presidential year. This important reform will expand opportunities for voters in this crucial Presidential election. We applaud the Executive budget once again including reimbursements for postage and mailing costs. It is imperative the legislature includes this funding in the final budget. It is unclear how many voters will take advantage of this new reform the Democratic caucus of commissioners looks forward to implementing it.

We have aging electronic poll books that need to be upgraded. The Executive Budget specifically addresses this, and I applaud those efforts. Almost all poll books bought in 2019 at the adoption of Early Voting were sixth generation iPad. While these are still serviceable under the current version of IOS (17), there is a strong likelihood when IOS 18 is released later this year it will no longer support sixth generation iPad. This will not affect the 2024 election but going into 2025 many counties will need wholesale replacements of their fleet of IPad to stay up to date on security enhancements. Having that money allocated in the 2024 budget will allow counties to purchase that equipment for implementation in early 2025.

These annual funding requests will serve the needs of 2024 however we still need to address structural issues to maintain adequate minimum funding for Boards of Elections throughout the state. We must protect our Board of Elections from interference from local elected officials. We need to establish minimum staffing levels tied to voter registration rolls for each county Board of Elections. We need mandates for full-time commissioners as our political calendars demand input and guidance year-round. These guidelines can be established and monitored by our State Board of Elections to maintain the independence we need of our Boards of Elections while assuring that counties and New York State give the vital resources for us to accomplish our mission.

If we can establish these minimums, New York should also establish an annual funding stream to offset some costs of host counties. Make no mistake, the primary responsibility for funding elections rests at the county level. We are not a mandate but a responsibility. However, that responsibility also falls on the shoulder of New York State which sets election regulations and reforms that county Board of Elections must follow. A dialogue about how New York can assist counties properly staff and run the Board of Elections is necessary as we embark on the changes to elections mandated by the State legislature over the next few years. New York is one of a handful of states that does not have annual funding streams for the local Boards of Elections. Doing so would eliminate the need for annual funding requests and allow for long term planning for Boards of Elections as well as bring parity of service to all citizens of New York no matter where they live.

Thank you very much for this opportunity to testify today. I hope that we can count on the legislature’s support in defending our democracy here in New York.

Dustin M. Czarny

Commissioner (D), Onondaga County

Democratic Caucus Chair, NYS Elections Commissioner Association.

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Town hall addresses low voter turnout in 2024 presidential election – Daily Orange

With these statistics in mind, Czarny said New York residents should take advantage of state programs to make voting easier and more accessible in future elections, including by voting by mail and at early voting sites. He also encouraged community members to get involved in the election process more personally, like by serving as polling inspectors.

“You’re doing the work of making sure that the election is protected. And that is vitally important, important and needed. Inspectors are our eyes and ears at the polling place,” Czarny said.

https://dailyorange.com/2025/02/town-hall-addresses-low-voter-turnout-in-2024-election/

Commissioner in a Car: March Village Filing Period Feb 4-11, 2025

March Village elections are coming soon. February 4-11, 2025 is the independent nominating petition period for those villages. This year Fabius and Jordan are having elections run by their clerk and Skaneateles & Manlius run by the Onondaga County Board of Elections. Check it out.

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No time to relax as county board of elections prepares for next slate of races – WAER

“Every election has a six to eight-month lead up period of activity that you have to do to get to that election and we have 4 or 5 elections a year,” Czarny said. “So, we’re always planning for one as we’re setting up another.”

https://www.waer.org/news/2025-01-29/no-time-to-relax-as-county-board-of-elections-prepares-for-next-slate-of-races

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The Weekly Wonk: 2024 Election Alternative Voting

The #weeklywonk is back! About once a week I will write an article looking into the registration and electoral data in Onondaga County. In 2025 This will be a semi-weekly article and switch between electoral results data and registration data on races having elections this year. This week we will start to look back at the 2024 General Election and review the different data pieces from this pivotal event for our county. This week we start off by looking at Alternative voting in the 2024 General Election.

When I talk about alternative voting, I am referring to ways to cast a vote other than showing up and voting on Election Day in the normal matter. Alternative Voting generally comes in 4 main categories: Early in Person Voting, Vote by Mail, Affidavit Voting, and Court Orders. In 2024 we had 231,617 voters of which 51% (119323) voted on election Day. The remaining 49% voted in alternative methods. Early Voting (77,935 34%) led the way, with Vote by Mail (29,026 13%), Affidavit voting (5,128 2%), and finally court orders (205 <1%). Democrats tend to dominate alternative voting, and it was no different in 2024. Democrats made up 39% of Early Voters and 50% of Vote by Mail Voters. Republicans did a little better in Early Voting climbing to 31% but only 21% of Vote by Mail voters. Non enrolled made up 24% of both Early and Vote by Mail voters. 3^rd Party voters were 6% of Early Voters and 5% of Vote by Mail.

Early Voting has only been in place since the general election of 2019. Looking at the raw total of Early Voting, the 77,935 Early Voters in the 2024 General Election easily broke the record of both raw vote (59,284) and percentage of the over vote (24.96%) set in the last Presidential election. When making comparisons we should look at similar years in the four-year cycle. We have now had only two repeat years of similar years, 2019 & 2023 as well as 2020 & 2024. In both cases we saw significant increases from the past cycle in terms of raw vote totals. The 2020 to 2024 increases saw a 31.46% increase in raw totals and a 34.94% increase in percentage of overall vote.

We have 10 Early Voting Sites for a general election. Onondaga County started with 6 Early Voting sites from 2019 to 2021 and increased to ten in 2022 and remains to this day. These site numbers represent the minimum Early Voting sites required by NYS law. Over the course of the last few cycles our Early Voting sites have grouped themselves into large, medium, and small volumes which held the same in 2024. The 3 large sites are Dewitt town Hall (13,615 17%), Camillus Fire Station #1 12,348 16%), and Clay town Hall (12,079 16%). The 4 medium sites are North Syracuse Community Connections (10,377 13%), Lysander Municipal Building (8,422 11%), OCC Mulroy Hall (6,194 8%), and Armond Magnarelli (5,261 7%). Finally, there are three small sites Lafayette Fire Station #1 (5,026 6%), Beauchamp Library (2,772 4%), and Syracuse Community Connections (1,841 2%). One of the innovations we used this year was a wait time display on our website which helped spread out the totals and kept our large sites from being overwhelmed as in previous years.

Vote by Mail experienced large volumes in 2024 with the addition of the Early Vote by Mail option which allowed a non-excuse-based ability to vote by mail. This saw a large increase in terms of requests (33.908) and returns (29. 361). This was down from the records in 2020 (68,468 & 57,203) which was skewed due to the COVID pandemic. In addition, the return rate, the number of ballots returned versus request, was 86.59%. This represents one of the largest return rates since tracking started in 2009 indicating an enthusiasm, at least among vote by mail voters, to participate in the 2024 election. The percentage of the over all vote though is hard to compare. Since the pandemic we have had a variety of circumstances and access laws different just about every year. The 12.53% certainly shows a jump from the last few years but a decrease from 2020. We also can see that overall, more voters are using vote by mail in comparing previous cycles. We will have to see how the next four-year cycle goes to truly judge.

2024 was also a record year for affidavit voting in Onondaga County, Affidavit ballots are mainly for voters who are properly registered at one point but have moved or need to correct other information. These ballots are counted after Election Day as they need proper research by the staff of the Board of Elections. This was the highest number of voters (5,403) since we started tracking the data in 2009 eclipsing 2012’s record (5112). It was also the highest number of valid affidavits (5,128) by far also eclipsing the record in 2012 (3602). Finally, it also holds the record of percentage of affidavits that were ruled valid (94.91%) eclipsing 2021’s record (91.96%). The new vote by mail canvassing procedures as well as the increased intensity of a Presidential election is the reason we saw a large increase in volume. New rules and hard work of the Onondaga County Board of Elections is responsible for the high percentage of valid votes.

We track the Vote by Mail ballots and Affidavit ballots that are ultimately rejected by the Onondaga County Board of Elections. For both Vote by mail and Affidavits, when we are able, cures are sent to voters when a ballot is ruled invalid seeking to correct any deficiencies to count the ballot. This data represents the ballots that were not cured and had to be rejected. For Vote by Mail 533 ballots that were mailed were rejected for just a 1.84% rejection rate. The largest set of rejected ballots was 285 ballots that we mailed that had an undeliverable address. This is usually due to Permanent Absentee voters moving and not updating their address. Following that 153 (29%) did not have a matching signature, 53 (10%) were postmarked after Election Day, and the remaining 7% are spread over a variety of small reasons. 27^th affidavits were rejected with a rejection rate of 5.09%. 170 (62%) voters were not registered to vote at all, 50 (18%) voted either in person or by mail and the affidavit was rejected, 41 (15%) of the affidavits the voter failed to sign the envelope, 12 (4%) were voters who resided in other counties, and 2 (1%) the voters failed to enclose the ballots.

Looking at voting methods by year we get a great sense at how voters are gravitating towards these new options. Before 2019 New York and Onondaga County were primarily in person on election Day voting states averaging just 4-7% of voters voting by mail or affidavit. In 2019 this immediately jumped to 11.92%. During the pandemic in 2020 still holds the record with 49.93% choosing alternative methods. However, we saw growths in 2021 with 16.23%, 2022 with 26.42%, a slight decrease in 2023 to 20.03%, and grew a great deal in 2024 to 48.42%. It is likely that we will continue to see an increased usage rate for alternative voting. Though there was a slight decrease from the similar years of 2020 to 2024, that could be summed up to the anomaly that was the COVID pandemic. We did see a decent increase from 2019 to 2023 (68.04%).

Unfortunately, alternative voting has been a polarizing subject since its introduction in 2019. Democrats outnumber Republicans statistically in Onondaga County. Thuse it is expected for Democrats to dominate the raw numbers of any voting method. However, with Alternative voting we see consistently that a larger percentage of the overall vote chooses the two big alternative voting methods of Early Voting and vote by Mail. In 2024 we saw a dramatic increase in usage of Early Voting by republican voters (3550%). So much so they eclipsed the rate of Democratic voters (33.94%) when comparing the overall turnout. We saw the opposite in vote by Mail. Democrats took better advantage (16.44%) of the new Early Vote by Mail option than the GOP (6.90%) which grew only slightly.

That is, it for this week’s edition of the Weekly Wonk. Next week I continue my look back at the 2024 as we check in on election Day voting and overall turnout. Check back each week at dustinczarny.com as I examine more aspects of our community.

Commissioner in a Car: Recapping the NYSECA Winter Convention

This week I recap the NYSECA winter convention that was held last week in Albany. I talk about why elections officials from all over NY go convene twice a year to train and learn from our fellow colleagues. I also talk about the first few days of the Trump administration and the effect of some of his executive orders, and pardons, has on voting. Enjoy.

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Commissioner in a Car: Previewing the Races in 2025

In this weeks episode I preview the races expected to be on the ballot in 2025. County Legislature, Town races, and the big primaries in the City of Syracuse. I also touch on how the even year legislation is going to effect it if it survives a lawsuit, Enjoy.

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Commissioner in a Car: Welcome to 2025

I am back! In this week’s edition I talk about the decisions I have made on when to expect content in 2025 at dustinczarny.com. I also talk about the change in the National and State political landscape. And finally I talk about changes happening at the Onondaga County Board of Elections.

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2025 NYS Elections Commissioner Association Democratic Caucus Legislative Priorities

Every year the Democratic Caucus of the NYS Elections Commissioner Association identify a list of legislative and budget priorities to present to our legislative and executive leaders in New York to make better voter experience and make election administration better. We denote the current bill numbers, legislative status, and whether this is a shared goal of the GOP caucus of NYSECA or the NYS Board of Elections.

Give Boards of Elections the ability to properly serve the voters of New York.

Four-year terms for all boards of elections commissioners. (S2050/A7289) PASSED SENATE
Minimum staffing requirements set based on voter enrollment for full-time permanent employees for each Board of Election. (S843/A6069)
Require all Commissioners in New York outside of the City of New York to be full time commissioners (S1087/A5056) PASSED SENATE
Support Mandatory Training and certification for Commissioner and Deputies. (S1035/A1228) PASSED SENATE (NYSBOE support)
Mandate County nominations for Commissioners occur no later than the party reorganization meeting or October 15^th in years where a reorganization meeting does not occur.

Since 2019, long awaited election reform has changed local Boards of Elections responsibilities without making the structural changes necessary for each county board to meet the needs of their voters. Making these changes will allow County Commissioners the ability to strategically plan and bring year-round full-time management to the Board of Elections in every county. We also support making training and certification for all Elections Commissioners and deputies to ensure professional operations of each Board of Elections. We also must ensure proper transitions when new Elections Commissioners are elected, so we should limit late calendar nominations that can cause chaos on the political calendar.

Invest in our election system by providing the following funding streams in the New York State Budget.

Aid to localities funding of $10 million for distribution to County Board of Elections of unbudgeted expenses. (Bi-partisan support) SENATE ONE HOUSE $10 Million, ASSEMBLY ONE HOUSE 2.5 Million
Properly fund the New York State Board of Elections and give the NYSBOE proper authority to promulgate regulations and enforce responsibilities outlined in state law. (NYSBOE support) (Bi-partisan support) SENATE ONE HOUSE, ASSEMBLY ONE HOUSE, EXECUTIVE BUDGET ALL FULFILLS NYSBOE REQUEST

The cost of running elections is mainly the responsibility of county governments. With the added responsibilities that the NYS Legislature has required of Board of Elections we have rising costs due to increase staffing and equipment purchases. Each county has different needs. We believe a single annual Aid to locality grant replacing the various postage, equipment, and staffing grants is the best way for New York to meet is obligation to help county boards properly operate. We also support the NYS Board of Elections in their budget request to meet the increased regulatory and functionality they are required to provide.

Provide flexibility for County Board of Election operations.

Allow for flexibility for designating non-enrolled inspectors to serve as Republican or Democratic inspectors. (Bi-partisan support)
Grant county Election Commissioners independence and flexibility with respect to determining hours of operation. (Bi-partisan support)
Altering the highest municipality early voting law to lower the highest city threshold to at least 10,000 voters. (Bi-partisan support)
NY State should participate in cross state matching programs to keep our voter rolls accurate (S1356/A3649A). PASSED SENATE

County Board of Elections need flexibility to meet the modern needs of the electorate. Each individual county has different needs. Allowing the county boards flexibility in designating election inspectors can help in rural and urban communities. Boards of Elections often need to operate at different hours than their county hosts. They also need flexibility in selecting Early Voting sites that are more suitable for their counties. Finally joining ERIC will give Boards of Elections the tools we need to maintain our voter registration lists and provide accurate data.

Reform the Automatic Hand Count to work more efficiently.

Reduce the threshold for triggering recounts in close elections to .25% and allow for alternative scan within the .25-50% range, while also reducing the minimum vote threshold to ten. (Bi-partisan support) (S3290/A1091)
Exempt all party position contests from the manual hand count including judicial delegate and county committee contests. (NYSBOE support) (Bi-partisan support)
Allow candidates with less votes to opt out of a hand count. (Bi-partisan support)

The automatic hand-count has been in place for several election cycles. We have learned that the precinct scanners are accurate. Lowering the threshold for the hand-count will allow the Board of Elections to only focus on the truly close races that have a chance of changing hands. We must also stipulate that the hand-count should only start after initial certification allowing boards to properly prepare and sort ballots for counting. Finally, we should exempt party positions from the hand count rule as these elections are routinely close but not close enough to switch winners and draw resources away from publicly held offices. We can also give candidates with lesser votes the options to bypass the hand count if they don’t wish to participate.

Enhance our Ballot Access laws to provide protections for parties and to give access to candidates.

Extend the General Election Post Primary drop off date until after the certification of the June Primary or last day to caucus for town races. (Bi-partisan support)
Extend the enrollment change freeze window beyond the last day for caucus. (NYSBOE support) (Bi-partisan support)
Protect Town Caucus from party raiding by requiring party authorization for candidates not enrolled in a party to receive designation.
Allow county parties to have direct ballot access with their nomination process outside of NYC (Bi-partisan support) (S7401/A583)
Encourage legislation denoting that all public offices within the state of New York be referred to in gender neutral terms on Primary and General election ballots. (Bi-partisan support)

Our ballot access laws need modern protections and adjustments to ensure competitive and free elections. Over the last few cycles, we have seen an increase in those wanting to exploit some weaknesses in some ballot access functions to steal party lines. We urge the legislature to close these loopholes by extending the party change deadline until after the last day of caucus and to protect caucus from party raiding in the same way we do other ballot access methods. With the new calendar that pushes petitioning earlier we urge the legislature to give county parties the ability to have direct ballot access in the same way state parties have. Lastly, we encourage the legislature to pass legislation to refer to all elected offices in New York gender neutral terms.

Enhance and invest in our Vote by Mail options

Design a uniform paper and online application and oath envelope for all Vote by Mail options in New York including military and overseas voters.
Allow County Board of Elections the option to continue to scan vote by mail ballots during the Early Voting Period (Bi-partisan support)
Authorize the issuing of same-day absentee ballots in those instances when commissioners agree that health-related exigencies on or immediately prior to Election Day create hardship. (Bi-partisan support) (NYSBOE support)

One of the fastest growing methods of voting in New York is vote by mail. We should build upon this success. Voters should be presented with a uniform application for both Absentee and Vote by Mail so voters can [properly choose the method right for them. We also want county Board of Elections to have an option to scan vote by mail ballots during the Early Voting period if the Board of elections has the resources to do so. Finally, we would like the ability for Elections Commissioners to issue emergency same-day absentee ballots for health-related emergencies on election Day.

Emphasize the importance of Election Day, paper Ballots, and convenience of voters.

Designation of Election Day as a non-attendance day for public school students. (Bi-partisan support) (A2041) (NYSBOE support) (Bi-partisan support)
Support a Federal Holiday on Election Day (Bi-partisan support)
Allow for Vote Centers on Election Day as well as Early Voting on a permissive basis. (Bi-partisan support) (S569/A6449) PASSED SENATE
Enact a constitutional amendment requiring the use of paper ballots in New York State Elections (Bi-partisan support)

We also support steps to emphasize the importance of election Day. We believe that Election Day should be designated a non-attendance day for schools which will free up HAVA compliant polling places. We also support a Federal Holiday for Election Day to give voters the flexibility to not only vote but serve as election inspectors. We also want to allow, on a permissive basis, county Board of Elections to implement vote centers on Election Day as we do for Early Voting. Finally, we urge the NYS legislature to enact a constitutional amendment requiring the use of paper ballots in New York, which protects against fraud and allows for hand counts of close contests.

The Democratic caucus of NYS Elections Commissioners stand ready to assist any legislator willing to take up one of our priorities that does not yet have a bill number. We also encourage legislators to co-sponsor the bills we have included in our priorities as well. If you have any questions or wish to meet on any of these proposals, please reach out to our Caucus Chair, Dustin Czarny, at dustinczarny@gmail.com or 315-383-4318.

(Bi-partisan support) Indicates a common goal with the NYS Elections Commissioner Association Overall Legislative Agenda as Approved by bi-partisan Elections Commissioners in January 2025.

(NYSBOE support) Indicates a common goal with the NYS Board of Elections as part of their Election law proposals.

With thousands of blank ballots, 2 Central NY justice races decided by fewer than 20 write-in votes – Syracuse.com

The two elections were “very unusual,” Dustin Czarny, an Onondaga County elections commissioner.

https://www.syracuse.com/news/2024/12/with-thousands-of-blank-ballots-2-central-ny-justice-races-decided-by-fewer-than-20-write-in-votes.html?gift=0985174c-43bb-447c-94a1-bcbaf35d2c37

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