The Board of Elections in the City of New York (NYCBOE) conducts New York elections within New York City, United States. It is an administrative body of ten Commissioners, two from each borough upon recommendation by both political parties and then appointed by the New York City Council for a term of four years. The NYCBOE has a longstanding history of nepotism and dysfunction. The structure of the NYCBOE is enshrined in the New York state constitution. One of New York state's last sources of patronage jobs, the NYCBOE is run in a bipartisan manner, as each job position held by a Democrat must have a duplicated position for a Republican. The staff in the organization are political appointees rather than professional staff.

History and criticism

The Board has come under fire for errors and mismanagement in a number of elections:

Role and responsibilities

The Board of Elections in the City of New York, as provided under, is responsible for conducting elections, including primary, special and general elections; handling voter registration and the maintenance of voter records; handling candidate petitions, documents, and campaign finance disclosures; and conducting voter outreach and education.

Organization and structure

The Board is made up of ten commissioners, two from each of the five boroughs of New York City, appointed by the City Council for four-year terms. One member from each borough is appointed by each of the two parties whose candidates got the most votes in the last gubernatorial election. Since the top two candidates in the last election represented the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party get five representatives each on the Board of Elections. The ten Commissioners meet once a week. Day-to-day operations of the BOE are led by an appointed Executive Director and Deputy Executive Director, who oversee a "similar bipartisan arrangement of over 351 deputies, clerks and other personnel ensures that no one party controls the Board of Elections." The Board of Elections is one of New York state's last sources of traditional patronage jobs. City & State notes, "The Board of Elections is unique in that it is one of the city's few truly bipartisan administrative bodies, with five commissioners from each party overseeing its operations. While members consider this structure the best way to run fair and balanced elections, others contend that it engenders gridlock, as commissioners from both parties are not necessarily working toward a common interest but instead trying to ensure that the elections play out in their party's favor." For example, former state Assemblyman Michael Benjamin, who formerly was an elections clerk in the Bronx, "said that he witnessed firsthand the hyperpartisan nature of the board when two deputy clerks in Brooklyn and Staten Island gave conflicting instructions to their staff and refused to work together, creating confusion on the ground level" that inhibited the ability of the mayor and City Council to trust the Board to properly use funding. Efforts to reform the BOE have failed, in part because modifying its state structure would require changes to the state Constitution. The mayor has no power over the BOE. Mayor Michael Bloomberg was a vocal critic of the Board, which was the subject of complaints over its administration of elections; Bloomberg called for the Board to become a mayoral agency rather than an independent body.

List of commissioners