Press Release: Transparency Gap: NY Senate Confirmation Votes Kept Behind Two Layers of Obstacles

December 18, 2025
Votes not published and 98% of individual votes hidden by slate voting; 
interactive webpage highlights findings
 

Watchdog group Reinvent Albany today released a new report, “Transparency Gap: NY Senate Confirmation Votes Kept Behind Two Layers of Obstacles.” As covered by Dan Clark in the Times Union today, researchers at Reinvent Albany analyzed Senate roll call voting records for 2024 and 2025 obtained through Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests and discovered two major obstacles when trying to understand how their Senators vote on confirmations: 

  • Although confirmation votes occur in public, and Senate Rules require the publication of members’ votes, the Senate does not publish votes on its website.
  • The State Senate overuses slate voting, which obscures members’ positions on individuals up for confirmation.

Under the New York State Constitution, Senators must provide advice and consent on the Governor’s nominees to powerful positions—judges, agency heads, and key boards and commissions. But unlike the U.S. Senate, the NYC Council, and states like California, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, the NYS Senate does not publish how members vote on confirmations on its website.

Our analysis found 98% of nominees are confirmed via slate voting in the Senate. In addition to not publishing voting records online, the Senate’s use of slate voting obscures how Senators might vote on individual nominees. Because this reduces the accountability of Senators to constituents, slate voting is not used by the NYC Council or the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee during the confirmation of senior government officials. 

Reinvent Albany created an accompanying interactive webpage showing – for the first time – how individual Senators voted on slates in 2024 and 2025. A summary of the major findings and recommendations from the report are below.   

Dozens of Confirmations Approved via Slate Each Year, Mostly in June

  • 100% of the Governor’s appointments were confirmed each year, nearly all through slate voting in 2024 and 2025. Slate votes eliminate public accountability by obscuring Senators’ votes on individual – and potentially controversial – nominees from their constituents.
    • 98% of nominees were voted on in slates with 2 or more appointees. Only 5 nominees were voted on individually out of a total of 319 in 2024 and 2025. The average number of nominees on a slate was 14; the largest slate included 63 nominees. 
  • 2025: 144 individuals were confirmed for 60 positions
    • 16 nominees (11%) were approved on the final day of session (June 12th).
    • 91 nominees (63%) were approved on June 10th across three large slates. 
  • 2024: 175 individuals were confirmed for 74 positions
    • 70 nominees (40%) were approved on the final day of session.

Voting Records Show Attendance Records

  • Roll call voting records show Senators that were “Absent” and “Excused”, in addition to “Aye” and “Nay” votes.
    • 2025: Senator Zellnor Myrie was excused for 9 of 12 slates while running for NYC Mayor.
    • 2024: Senator Mark Walczyk was excused for all 11 slates while deployed in Kuwait for the U.S. Army Reserve.

Recommendations

  1. End slate voting, requiring Senators to vote on individual appointees, as is done by the NYC Council and for high-profile positions by the U.S. Senate.
  2. The Senate should publish complete voting records on nominations on its website, including Senators’ floor and committee votes, as is done in the U.S. Senate, New York City Council, and the states of California, Pennsylvania, Vermont, North Carolina, and Illinois. 
  3. Require disclosure of lobbying on confirmations. The Legislature should pass and the Governor should sign S374 (Gianaris) /A7456 (McDonald) requiring disclosure of lobbying on Senate confirmations. An earlier version of this legislation was vetoed by Governor Hochul in 2023.
  4. Provide adequate time for review. The Governor should provide the Senate with more time to consider nominations, not wait until the final weeks of session. Other states require appointees to be sent by certain deadlines, such as March 1st (Iowa) or May 1st (Connecticut).

Click to view the report as a PDF or on our blog.

Click to view the Senate Confirmations webpage on Reinvent Albany’s site.