Requires the board of elections to print in bold type the date and time of all upcoming primary and general elections on address verification notices sent out prior to elections.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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6302--A
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
June 3, 2019
___________
Introduced by Sen. MYRIE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules -- committee
discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted
to said committee
AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to the notice of the days
and hours for voting in primary and general 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 separately amended by chapters 3 and 5 of the laws of 2019, is amended
3 to read as follows:
4 1. The board of elections, not less than sixty-five days nor more than
5 seventy days before the primary election in each year, shall send by
6 mail on which is endorsed such language designated by the state board of
7 elections to ensure postal authorities do not forward such mail but
8 return it to the board of elections with forwarding information, when it
9 cannot be delivered as addressed and which contains a request that any
10 such mail received for persons not residing at the address be dropped
11 back in the mail, a communication, in a form approved by the state board
12 of elections, to every registered voter who has been registered without
13 a change of address since the beginning of such year, except that the
14 board of elections shall not be required to send such communications to
15 voters in inactive status. The communication shall notify the voter in
16 bold print contained in such notice of the days and hours of the ensuing
17 primary and general elections, the place where he or she appears by his
18 or her registration records to be entitled to vote, and also in other
19 than bold type of the fact that voters who have moved or will have moved
20 from the address where they were last registered must either notify the
21 board of elections of his or her new address or vote by paper ballot at
22 the polling place for his or her new address even if such voter has not
23 re-registered, or otherwise notified the board of elections of the
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06676-05-9
S. 6302--A 2
1 change of address. If the primary will not be held on the first Tuesday
2 after the second Monday in September, the communication shall contain a
3 conspicuous notice in all capital letters and bold font notifying the
4 voter of the primary date. If the location of the polling place for the
5 voter's election district has been moved, the communication shall
6 contain the following legend in bold type: "YOUR POLLING PLACE HAS BEEN
7 CHANGED. YOU NOW VOTE AT..........". The communication shall also indi-
8 cate whether the polling place is accessible to physically disabled
9 voters, that a voter who will be out of the city or county on the day of
10 the primary or general election or a voter who is ill or physically
11 disabled may obtain an absentee ballot, that a physically disabled voter
12 whose polling place is not accessible may request that his registration
13 record be moved to an election district which has a polling place which
14 is accessible, the phone number to call for applications to move a
15 registration record or for absentee ballot applications, the phone
16 number to call for the location of registration and polling places, the
17 phone number to call to indicate that the voter is willing to serve on
18 election day as an election inspector, poll clerk, interpreter or in
19 other capacities, the phone number to call to obtain an application for
20 registration by mail, and such other information concerning the
21 elections or registration as the board may include. In lieu of sending
22 such communication to every registered voter, the board of elections may
23 send a single communication to a household containing more than one
24 registered voter, provided that the names of all such voters appear as
25 part of the address on such communication.
26 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of December next succeed-
27 ing the date on which it shall have become a law.
