New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is attempting to pressure the city’s Board of Elections to select at least 100 sites for early voting — nearly three times the number required under state law.

At a community center in Harlem on Monday, the mayor held up a letter sent to the Board’s commissioners that offers them $75 million contingent on identifying those sites.

"We’ll put our money where our mouth is," de Blasio said, as if addressing the Board. "Now are you ready to take up this task? Are you ready to do the right thing?"

Under the state’s new early voting law, passed by the Democrat-controlled state legislature in January, each county across the state must choose at least one early voting site for every 50,000 registered voters and a minimum of seven sites in counties with 350,000 or more voters.

That means every county in New York City, except Staten Island, should have at least seven sites for a total of 34 citywide. De Blasio said that’s not good enough.

Invoking now-familiar images of long lines, broken machines and general dysfunction on Election Day 2018, he said early voting offers the board an opportunity to redeem itself — but only if they select enough locations to make it easy for people to vote.

This is not the first time the de Blasio administration has offered the elections board more money to make changes to how they operate. In 2016, one week after WNYC reported the board illegally purged thousands of voters from the rolls in Brooklyn, the mayor offered the board $20 million to make a series reforms, including improved poll worker training and salaries; improved communication with voters; and the hiring of a management consultant to review and improve operations.

The board did not accept the money. NYC BOE Executive Director Michael Ryan routinely describes the Board as a "ministerial agency" that derives its power from the state Election Law and is therefore not beholden to any municipal oversight. As a policy, the board rejects any suggestion that would give city officials influence over how they operate. 

De Blasio’s latest offer comes two days before the board, like those of other elections boards around the state, must submit its list of early voting sites to the state. The locations will allow voters to cast ballots for nine days leading up to a primary, general or run-off election.

The New York City Board of Elections declined to comment on the mayor’s offer. Executive Director Michael Ryan is scheduled to testify Tuesday morning at a City Council oversight hearing on the status of the agency’s early voting planning.

The hearing is likely to be contentious. It is not clear whether Ryan will be able to provide lawmakers with a complete list of early voting locations. The commissioners, five Democrats and five Republicans from each borough, will not meet until that afternoon — and they make the final decisions.