NY A08296

Changes terminology from "manual recount" to "hand recount" and modifies trigger language to "ballots cast on which a particular contest appeared" rather than "ballots for" a contest.

Establishes three conditions requiring a full hand recount: margin of victory of 20 votes or less, margin of victory of 0.5% or less, or in contests with one million or more ballots cast where the margin is less than 5,000 votes.

Redefines "margin of victory" as the difference between the fewest votes received by the winning candidate and the most votes received by the losing candidate, or for ballot proposals, the difference between votes cast for and against.

Specifies that the 0.5% margin threshold is calculated by dividing the margin of victory by the total number of ballots cast on which the contest appeared and multiplying by 100.

For multi-county contests, requires the state board of elections to determine the margin of victory based on recanvass results submitted by the relevant boards of elections, with full hand recount results superseding the original election district returns.