Requires the board of elections to publish notice of a polling place location change thirty days before the change or on the earliest known date of such change in the event of an emergency; provides for the use of electronic mail to notify voters of polling place location changes.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
11708
IN ASSEMBLY
September 2, 2026
___________
Introduced by COMMITTEE ON RULES -- (at request of M. of A. Rosenthal)
-- read once and referred to the Committee on Election Law
AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to providing notice of
polling place location changes
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraph (a) of subdivision 2 of section 4-104 of the
2 election law, as amended by chapter 603 of the laws of 2025, is amended
3 and a new paragraph (c) is added to read as follows:
4 (a) If the board of elections, after designating a polling place, and
5 after sending written notice of such polling place to each registered
6 voter, designates an alternative polling place, it must, at least [five]
7 sixty days before the next election or day for registration, send by
8 mail a written notice to each registered voter notifying such voter of
9 the changed location of such polling place. If such notice is not possi-
10 ble the board of elections must provide for an alternative form of
11 notice to be given to voters at the location of the previous polling
12 place. The board of elections shall publish such notice of the changed
13 location on its website no later than thirty days prior to the next
14 election or day for registration, as applicable; provided that, in the
15 event of an unforeseen situation occurring on or after such thirty-day
16 period and rendering the whole or a substantial portion of a polling or
17 registration place inoperable for election purposes on the next election
18 day or registration deadline, as applicable, the board of elections
19 shall publish notice of the changed location of the polling or registra-
20 tion location on its website no later than the date after the day the
21 changed location is determined.
22 (c) The board of elections shall also transmit the notice made pursu-
23 ant to paragraph (a) of this subdivision by electronic mail, if such
24 information is available to the board of elections in the voter's regis-
25 tration information. Notice by electronic mail pursuant to this para-
26 graph shall not be deemed a substitute for written notice by mail.
27 § 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
28 it shall have become a law.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD16127-02-6
