New York Codes, Rules and Regulations
Title 22 - JUDICIARY
Subtitle C - Ancillary Agencies
Chapter VI - Judicial Nomination Commission
Part 7100 - Rules Of Procedure
Section 7100.12 - Appendix I. Voting procedures
Universal Citation: 22 NY Comp Codes Rules and Regs ยง 7100.12
Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 12, March 20, 2024
(a) Statement of purpose.
(1) The commission considered
what voting process would best serve the constitutional and statutory mandate
to carefully evaluate and then nominate to the Governor well qualified
candidates for the Court of Appeals. Under the leadership of the late Columbia
Law School Professor Herbert Wechsler, the commission implemented, and has
since successfully used, a voting process that both encourages consensus among
the commissioners and promotes a thorough consideration of each candidate.
Voting for candidates through successive ballots fosters open discussion of
candidates among the commissioners and a deliberative process. This depth of
discussion helps ensure that each commissioner's perspective is heard and that
the commissioners have ample information to enable them to compare candidates
and select those well qualified for the Court of Appeals.
(2) The commission carefully
and thoroughly tested the voting procedures described below. A voting system in
which each commissioner ranks a finite number of candidates and assigns the
highest number of points to his or her most preferred candidate makes it
extremely difficult to manipulate the voting and greatly reduces the
possibility of bloc voting.
(b) Overview.
(1) Pursuant to section
63(3) of the Judiciary Law,
a recommendation of a candidate to the Governor requires the concurrence of at
least eight commissioners. During the voting process, the concurrence of at
least eight commissioners is established through the requirement that a
candidate receive at least eight "affirmative votes" to be nominated. An
affirmative vote is a vote by a commissioner that ranks a candidate high enough
on that individual commissioner's ballot to place that candidate within the
number of candidates remaining to be nominated.
(2) If the commission has not
nominated any candidates through the concurrence of eight or more members
pursuant to section
7100.8(c)(3)
of this Part, each commissioner present during the nomination process will vote
for 15 candidates he or she considers well qualified for the Court of Appeals.
A candidate is considered nominated if eight or more commissioners
affirmatively vote for that candidate and if he or she receives the highest
number of points. (A candidate's "points" refers to the aggregate of the
ranking each candidate receives during a round of voting.)
(3) If the candidate or
candidates receiving the highest number of points are nominated, then, if the
candidate or candidates receiving the second greatest number of points also
received the affirmative vote of at least eight commissioners, that
candidate(s) will also be nominated in this round of voting. This process will
be repeated with regard to the candidate(s) receiving the next highest point
total until the candidate with the greatest point total among candidates not
already nominated in that round of voting fails to receive the affirmative vote
of at least eight commissioners. At that point, the round of voting
ends.
(4) If there
is a tie for the highest number of points, all of the tied candidates receiving
the affirmative votes of at least eight commissioners will be nominated.
However, if not all of the tied candidates received at least eight affirmative
votes, then, after the nomination of those candidates receiving at least eight
affirmative votes, that round of voting ends.
(5) Additional rounds of balloting will
be conducted if the first round of balloting does not yield the required number
of candidates. All candidates who are not nominated or dropped from
consideration are included on subsequent ballots. The results of voting from
prior rounds are not included when tabulating subsequent voting; all candidates
start each round of voting with zero points and zero affirmative
votes.
(6) If a
round of voting ends and the number of candidates nominated is not the maximum
number specified in section
63(2)(b) or
(c) of the Judiciary Law, any commissioner
may call for further discussion of candidates not previously nominated. During
this discussion, candidates may be nominated with the concurrence of at least
eight commissioners. If, at the end of discussion, the number of candidates
nominated is less than required by section
63(2)(b) or
(c) of the Judiciary Law, the voting process
will continue.
(7)
At any time following the completion of the first ballot, in the case of a
vacancy in the office of Associate Judge, a member may offer a resolution
reducing the number of candidates to be nominated, within the range stated in
section
63(2)(b) or
(c) of the Judiciary Law. The concurrence of
at least eight commissioners will be required to pass such a
resolution.
(8) At
any time during the voting process, a candidate may be dropped from
consideration on the concurrence of at least eight commissioners so long as the
number of remaining candidates plus the number of candidates already nominated
is within the range specified in section
63(2)(b) or
(c) of the Judiciary Law.
(c) Illustration of voting process. To illustrate the voting process, the commission will place on its website sample ballots and examples of the balloting process.
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