Provides that whenever a contiguous property of a college or university contains three hundred or more registrants, the polling place designated for such election district shall be on such contiguous property or at a location approved by the college or university.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
454--A
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY(Prefiled)
January 6, 2021
___________
Introduced by M. of A. ROZIC, PEOPLES-STOKES, CAHILL, COOK, DINOWITZ,
ENGLEBRIGHT, GALEF, GOTTFRIED, VANEL, ABINANTI, GRIFFIN, JACOBSON,
BARRETT, REYES, COLTON, CRUZ, EPSTEIN, WEPRIN, SIMON, OTIS, FRONTUS,
SEAWRIGHT, FAHY, DE LA ROSA, BRAUNSTEIN -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of
A. GLICK, LUPARDO -- read once and referred to the Committee on
Election Law -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted
as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to the boundaries of
election districts and the designation of polling places
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 4-104 of the election law is amended by adding a
2 new subdivision 5-a to read as follows:
3 5-a. Whenever a contiguous property of a college or university
4 contains three hundred or more registrants (excluding registrants in
5 inactive status) who are registered to vote at an address on such
6 contiguous property, the polling place designated for such registrants
7 shall be on such contiguous property or at a location approved by the
8 college or university.
9 § 2. Paragraph a of subdivision 3 of section 4-100 of the election
10 law, as amended by chapter 659 of the laws of 1994, is amended to read
11 as follows:
12 a. Each election district shall be in compact form and may not be
13 partly within and partly without a ward, town, city, a village which has
14 five thousand or more inhabitants and is wholly within one town, the
15 contiguous property of a college or university which contains three
16 hundred or more registrants (excluding registrants in inactive status)
17 who are registered to vote at an address on such contiguous property, or
18 a county legislative, assembly, senatorial or congressional district.
19 Except as provided in paragraph b of this subdivision, election district
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03331-03-1
A. 454--A 2
1 boundaries, other than those boundaries which are coterminous with the
2 boundaries of those political subdivisions and college or university
3 properties mentioned in this paragraph, must be streets, rivers, rail-
4 road lines or other permanent characteristics of the landscape which are
5 clearly visible to any person without the need to use any technical or
6 mechanical device. An election district shall contain not more than nine
7 hundred fifty registrants (excluding registrants in inactive status) or,
8 with the approval of the county board of elections, not more than eleven
9 hundred fifty registrants (excluding registrants in inactive status),
10 but any election district may be divided for the convenience of the
11 voters.
12 § 3. Paragraph (a) of subdivision 2 of section 8-600 of the election
13 law, as amended by chapter 344 of the laws of 2020, is amended to read
14 as follows:
15 (a) The board of elections shall designate polling places for early
16 voting, which may include the offices of the board of elections, for
17 persons to vote early pursuant to this title; provided, however, that
18 the municipality with the highest population in each county based on the
19 latest federal decennial census shall have at least one polling place
20 designated for early voting, and to the extent practicable if such muni-
21 cipality has public transportation routes, such polling place shall be
22 situated along such transportation routes. There shall be so designated
23 at least one early voting polling place for every full increment of
24 fifty thousand registered voters in each county; provided, however, the
25 number of early voting polling places in a county shall not be required
26 to be greater than ten unless required by any other provision of law,
27 and a county with fewer than fifty thousand voters shall have at least
28 one early voting polling place. Whenever a contiguous property of a
29 college or university contains three hundred or more registrants
30 (excluding registrants in inactive status) who are registered to vote at
31 an address on such contiguous property, such contiguous property or a
32 location approved by the college or university shall be designated as an
33 early voting polling place.
34 § 4. This act shall take effect January 1, 2024.