Provides that if a school building is designated as a polling place, the board or body which controls such building shall provide a space that is not easily accessible to areas of the building where instructional activities are taking place, and if such a space cannot be provided that meets such criteria, the board or agency which controls such building shall cancel in-person instructional activities during the operating hours of such poll site.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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4469
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
February 9, 2023
___________
Introduced by Sen. MARTINEZ -- 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 the use of school
buildings as polling sites
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 3 of section 4-104 of the election law, as
2 amended by chapter 694 of the laws of 1989, is amended to read as
3 follows:
4 3. A building exempt from taxation shall be used whenever possible as
5 a polling place if it is situated in the same or a contiguous election
6 district, and may contain as many distinctly separate polling places as
7 public convenience may require. The expense, if any, incidental to its
8 use, shall be paid like the expense of other places of registration and
9 voting. If a board or body empowered to designate polling places chooses
10 a public school building for such purpose, the board or agency which
11 controls such building must make available a room or rooms in such
12 building which are suitable for registration and voting and which are as
13 close as possible to a convenient entrance to such building and must
14 make available any such room or rooms which the board or body designat-
15 ing such building determines are accessible to physically disabled
16 voters as provided in subdivision one-a and shall provide a space that
17 is not easily accessible to areas of the building where instructional
18 activities are taking place, if such a space cannot be provided that
19 meets such criteria, the board or agency which controls such building
20 shall cancel in-person instructional activities during the operating
21 hours of such poll site. Notwithstanding the provisions of any general,
22 special or local law, if a board or body empowered to designate polling
23 places chooses a publicly owned or leased building, other than a public
24 school building, for such purposes the board or body which controls such
25 building must make available a room or rooms in such building which are
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD07095-02-3
S. 4469 2
1 suitable for registration and voting and which are as close as possible
2 to a convenient entrance to such building, and must make available any
3 such room or rooms which the board or body designating such building
4 determines are accessible to physically disabled voters unless, not
5 later than thirty days after notice of its designation as a polling
6 place, the board or body controlling such building, files a written
7 request for a cancellation of such designation with the board or body
8 empowered to designate polling places on such form as shall be provided
9 by the board or body making such designation. The board or body
10 empowered to so designate shall, within twenty days after such request
11 is filed, determine whether the use of such building as a polling place
12 would unreasonably interfere with the usual activities conducted in such
13 building and upon such determination, may cancel such designation.
14 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
