Freedom of Information Requests (FOIL)

Part 1401.2(b) of the Codes, Rules and Regulations of the State of New York and Section 6202 of the Official Rules and Regulations of the New York State Board of Elections.

Most records maintained by the New York State Board of Elections are available for public access on this website. All other records, except those exempted from public access by law, shall be available by request and as described below, or for examination and copying in the public review areas of the State Board of Elections, 40 North Pearl Street, Suite 5, Albany, NY, on all regular business days from 9:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. When requested, copies will be made by this agency at a charge of $ .25 per page.

Subject Matter List

FOIL requests for records maintained by the New York State Board of Elections must be submitted in writing to the Board of Elections’ Records Access Officer. Please be as specific as possible in describing the records you seek. Requests can be delivered in person, mailed, faxed, emailed or submitted online by using the link below.

Submit a FOIL Request

Any person denied access to any records of the Agency by the Director of Public Information may appeal within thirty (30) days of the denial directly to the FOIL Appeals Officer, who shall, within ten (10) business days of the receipt of the appeal, fully explain in writing to the person requesting the record the reasons for denial, or provide access to the records sought. The appeal should be addressed to:

FOIL Appeals Officer
New York State Board of Elections
40 North Pearl Street, Suite 5
Albany, NY 12207-2729
Tel: (518) 474-6367

New York State Election Law Sec 3-103(5) prohibits using information derived from voter registration records for non-election purposes. When submitting a request for voter registration data it must include a statement that the information requested will be used for an “elections purpose” in compliance with New York State Election Law Section 3-103.5. (An “elections purpose” has traditionally been interpreted broadly and among other things includes, campaigning, voter outreach, fundraising and academic research.)

Statewide and multidistrict files contain a large number of records - the entire state exceeds millions of records - requesters must have software capable of handling very large files. The file will be provided in ASCII, comma delimited format and a file layout will be provided. The file will be zipped using a MS-compatible compression program.

The following is the name and business address of the Records Access Officer of the New York State Board of Elections, who maintains a list of available records and to whom requests should be addressed:

Kathleen McGrath
Director of Public Information
New York State Board of Elections
40 North Pearl Street, Suite 5
Albany, NY 12207-2729
Tel: (518) 474-1953

The Director of Public Information must respond within five (5) business days.

Housed in the NYS Department of State, the Committee is responsible for overseeing and advising with regard to the Freedom of Information Law, the Open Meetings Law and the Personal Privacy Protection Law. For more information, visit http://www.dos.ny.gov/coog/.