STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
654
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE(Prefiled)
January 8, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sens. KRUEGER, HOYLMAN-SIGAL -- read twice and ordered
printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on
Elections
AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to designating early poll-
ing places
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivisions 1 and 3 of section 4-104 of the election law,
2 subdivision 1 as amended by chapter 5 of the laws of 2019 and subdivi-
3 sion 3 as amended by chapter 694 of the laws of 1989, are amended to
4 read as follows:
5 1. Every board of elections shall, in consultation with each city,
6 town and village, designate the polling places in each election district
7 in which the meetings for the registration of voters, and for any
8 election may be held. The board of trustees of each village in which
9 general and special village elections conducted by the board of
10 elections are held at a time other than the time of a general election
11 shall submit such a list of polling places for such village elections to
12 the board of elections. A polling place may be located in a building
13 owned by a religious organization or used by it as a place of worship.
14 If such a building is designated as a polling place, it shall not be
15 required to be open for voter registration on any Saturday if this is
16 contrary to the religious beliefs of the religious organization. In such
17 a situation, the board of elections shall designate an alternate
18 location to be used for voter registration. Such polling places must be
19 designated by March fifteenth, of each year, and shall be effective for
20 one year thereafter. Such a list required to be submitted by a village
21 board of trustees must be submitted at least four months before each
22 general village election and shall be effective until four months before
23 the subsequent general village election. [No place in which a business
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02511-01-5
S. 654 2
1 licensed to sell alcoholic beverages for on premises consumption is
2 conducted on any day of local registration or of voting shall be so
3 designated.] If, within the discretion of the board of elections a
4 particular polling place so designated is subsequently found to be
5 unsuitable or unsafe or should circumstances arise that make a desig-
6 nated polling place unsuitable or unsafe, then the board of elections is
7 empowered to select an alternative meeting place. In the city of New
8 York, the board of elections shall designate such polling places and
9 alternate registration places if the polling place cannot be used for
10 voter registration on Saturdays.
11 3. A board or body empowered to designate polling places shall desig-
12 nate any public building as a polling place to the extent practicable,
13 provided, however, that in no case shall a public school building be
14 designated as an early voting polling location. If additional polling
15 places shall be needed, a building exempt from taxation or owned by an
16 entity receiving more than one million dollars in annual state grant
17 funding shall be used [whenever possible] as a polling place if it is
18 situated in the same or a contiguous election district, and may contain
19 as many distinctly separate polling places as public convenience may
20 require, unless the owner or operator of such building shall demonstrate
21 that such use is significantly incompatible with the primary function of
22 the entity. The expense, if any, incidental to its use, shall be paid
23 like the expense of other places of registration and voting. If a board
24 or body empowered to designate polling places chooses a public school
25 building for such purpose, the board or agency which controls such
26 building must make available a room or rooms in such building which are
27 suitable for registration and voting and which are as close as possible
28 to a convenient entrance to such building and must make available any
29 such room or rooms which the board or body designating such building
30 determines are accessible to physically disabled voters as provided in
31 subdivision one-a. Notwithstanding the provisions of any general,
32 special or local law, if a board or body empowered to designate polling
33 places chooses a publicly owned or leased building, other than a public
34 school building, for such purposes the board or body which controls such
35 building must make available a room or rooms in such building which are
36 suitable for registration and voting and which are as close as possible
37 to a convenient entrance to such building, and must make available any
38 such room or rooms which the board or body designating such building
39 determines are accessible to physically disabled voters unless, not
40 later than thirty days after notice of its designation as a polling
41 place, the board or body controlling such building, files a written
42 request for a cancellation of such designation with the board or body
43 empowered to designate polling places on such form as shall be provided
44 by the board or body making such designation. The board or body
45 empowered to so designate shall, within twenty days after such request
46 is filed, determine whether the use of such building as a polling place
47 would unreasonably interfere with the usual activities conducted in such
48 building and upon such determination, may cancel such designation.
49 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
