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A06658 Summary:

A06658 Actions:

A06658 Memo:

NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY
MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION
 submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)



 
BILL NUMBER: A6658
 
SPONSOR: Perry (MS)

 
TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the election law, in relation to the
notice of the days and hours for voting in primary and general elections
 
 
PURPOSE:
 
To help increase voter participation by requiring the Board of Elections
to print the date and time of all upcoming Primary and General Elections
in  bold type of at least sixteen points on address verification notices
sent out prior to elections
 
 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
 
This bill amends section 1.  subdivision  1  of  section  5-712  of  the

election  law, as separately amended by chapters 263 and 396 of the laws
of 1991, and requires the Board of Elections to print the date and  time
of  upcoming  Primary  and  General  Elections  in bold type of at least
sixteen points in notices sent to every  registered  voter,  forty  days
before  the  first  day  of local registration. "Such communication is a
routine check to ascertain whether such  voter  still  resides  at  this
registered address".
 
 
JUSTIFICATION:
 
The  Board  of Elections is required to mail out notices which serve the
purposes of both verifying the residence of the voter and informing  the
voter  of  the  dates of Primary and General Elections, and the location
for voting in some cases. In urban areas such as NYC where voter partic-
ipation is low, particularly in primary elections, these notices  should
serve  as  clear and timely reminders to voters who often forget primary

election dates. Moreover, mail from the Board of Elections is  routinely
discarded  as  junk  mail.Since  the  dates  of  the Primary and General
Elections are not usually in easily distinguishable  bold  type,  voters
who  glance  at the notices often miss this vital information. This bill
seeks to increase the likelihood that voters will greater  notice  these
important dates.
 
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
 
2013-2014 A4490
2011-2012 A3173
2009-2010 A3549
2007-2008 A4097
2005-2006 A3807
2003-2004 A5130
2001-2002 A3590
1999-2000 A1016
1997-1998 A3258
1995-1996 A6185-A
 
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
 
None to the State.
 
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This  act shall take effect on the first of December next succeeding the
date on which it shall have become a law.

A06658 Text:

 
                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                          6658
 
                               2015-2016 Regular Sessions
 
                   IN ASSEMBLY
 
                                     March 30, 2015
                                       ___________
 
        Introduced by M. of A. PERRY, KAVANAGH -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A.
          HOOPER,  ORTIZ,  SCARBOROUGH,  WRIGHT -- read once and referred to the
          Committee on Election Law
 
        AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to the notice of the  days
          and hours for voting in primary and general elections
 
          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:
 
     1    Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 4-117  of  the  election  law,  as
     2  amended  by  chapter  288  of  the  laws  of 2009, is amended to read as
     3  follows:
     4    1. The board of elections, between August first and  August  fifth  of
     5  each  year, shall send by first class mail on which is endorsed "ADDRESS
     6  CORRECTION REQUESTED" and which contains a request that  any  such  mail
     7  received  for persons not residing at the address be dropped back in the
     8  mail, a communication,  in  a  form  approved  by  the  state  board  of
     9  elections,  to  every registered voter who has been registered without a
    10  change of address since the beginning of  such  year,  except  that  the
    11  board  of elections shall not be required to send such communications to
    12  voters in inactive status. The communication shall notify the  voter  in
    13  bold  print  of  at least sixteen point font contained in such notice of
    14  the days and hours of the ensuing primary  and  general  elections,  the
    15  place  where  he  appears  by his registration records to be entitled to
    16  vote, and also in other than bold type of the fact that voters who  have
    17  moved  or  will  have moved from the address where they were last regis-
    18  tered must re-register or, that if such move was to another  address  in
    19  the  same county or city, that such voter may either notify the board of
    20  elections of his new address or vote by  paper  ballot  at  the  polling
    21  place  for  his new address even if such voter has not re-registered, or
    22  otherwise notified the board of elections of the change of  address.  If
    23  the  location of the polling place for the voter's election district has
    24  been moved, the communication shall contain the following legend in bold
 
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD03281-01-5
        A. 6658                             2
 
     1  type: "YOUR POLLING PLACE HAS BEEN CHANGED. YOU NOW VOTE  AT..........".
     2  The  communication  shall  also  indicate  whether  the polling place is
     3  accessible to physically disabled voters, that a voter who will  be  out
     4  of the city or county on the day of the primary or general election or a
     5  voter  who  is ill or physically disabled may obtain an absentee ballot,
     6  that a physically disabled voter whose polling place is  not  accessible
     7  may  request  that  his  registration  record  be  moved  to an election
     8  district which has a polling place which is accessible, the phone number
     9  to call for applications to move a registration record or  for  absentee
    10  ballot applications, the phone number to call for the location of regis-
    11  tration  and  polling  places, the phone number to call to indicate that
    12  the voter is willing to serve on election day as an election  inspector,
    13  poll clerk, interpreter or in other capacities, the phone number to call
    14  to obtain an application for registration by mail, and such other infor-
    15  mation  concerning  the  elections  or  registration  as  the  board may
    16  include. In lieu of  sending  such  communication  to  every  registered
    17  voter,  the  board  of  elections  may  send a single communication to a
    18  household containing more than one registered voter, provided  that  the
    19  names  of all such voters appear as part of the address on such communi-
    20  cation.
    21    § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of December next succeed-
    22  ing the date on which it shall have become a law.