Permits boards of elections to opt to mail communications regarding primary elections to only those voters eligible to vote in such primary elections; excludes such option for the board of elections of the city of New York.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
8985
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
August 13, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. STECK -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Election Law
AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to communications mailed
to registered voters regarding primary 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 481 of the laws of 2023, is amended to read as
3 follows:
4 1. The board of elections, between the third Tuesday in April and the
5 second Friday in May in each year, shall send by mail on which is
6 endorsed such language designated by the state board of elections to
7 ensure postal authorities do not forward such mail but return it to the
8 board of elections with forwarding information, when it cannot be deliv-
9 ered as addressed and which contains a request that any such mail
10 received for persons not residing at the address be dropped back in the
11 mail, a communication, in a form approved by the state board of
12 elections, to every registered voter, except as otherwise provided in
13 this subdivision, who has been registered without a change of address
14 since the beginning of such year, except that the board of elections
15 shall not be required to send such communications to voters in inactive
16 status. The communication shall notify the voter in bold print contained
17 in such notice of the days and hours of the ensuing [primary and] gener-
18 al elections and primary elections, where applicable, the place where
19 [he or she] such voter appears by [his or her] their registration
20 records to be entitled to vote, and also in other than bold type of the
21 fact that voters who have moved or will have moved from the address
22 where they were last registered must either notify the board of
23 elections of [his or her] their new address or vote by paper ballot at
24 the polling place for [his or her] their new address even if such voter
25 has not re-registered, or otherwise notified the board of elections of
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD13353-01-5
A. 8985 2
1 the change of address. In lieu of sending the communication to every
2 registered voter, a board of elections, except the board of elections of
3 the city of New York, may elect to send such communication with regard
4 to primary elections only to those voters who are eligible to vote in
5 such primary elections. If the primary will not be held on the first
6 Tuesday after the second Monday in September, the communication shall
7 contain a conspicuous notice in all capital letters and bold font noti-
8 fying the voter of the primary date. If the location of the polling
9 place for the voter's election district has been moved, the communi-
10 cation shall contain the following legend in bold type: "YOUR POLLING
11 PLACE HAS BEEN CHANGED. YOU NOW VOTE AT..........". The communication
12 shall indicate that any registered voter may vote early by mail by
13 applying for an early mail ballot, and provide information on how to
14 apply for an early mail ballot. The communication shall also indicate
15 whether the polling place is accessible to physically disabled voters,
16 that a voter who will be out of the city or county on the day of the
17 primary or general election or a voter who is ill or physically disabled
18 may obtain an absentee ballot, that a physically disabled voter whose
19 polling place is not accessible may request that [his] their registra-
20 tion record be moved to an election district which has a polling place
21 which is accessible, the phone number to call for applications to move a
22 registration record or for early mail or absentee ballot applications,
23 the phone number to call for the location of registration and polling
24 places, the phone number to call to indicate that the voter is willing
25 to serve on election day as an election inspector, poll clerk, inter-
26 preter or in other capacities, the phone number to call to obtain an
27 application for registration by mail, and such other information
28 concerning the elections or registration as the board may include. In
29 lieu of sending such communication to every registered voter, the board
30 of elections may send a single communication to a household containing
31 more than one registered voter, provided that the names of all such
32 voters appear as part of the address on such communication.
33 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeed-
34 ing the date on which it shall have become a law.
