NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A3250A
SPONSOR: Epstein TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the election law, in relation to allowing pre-registered
voters to apply for an absentee or early mail ballot
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends section 5-102 of the election law to allow a pre-regis-
tered voters to request an absentee ballot or vote early by mail so long
as they will be 18 by the time of the election for which the ballot is
requested.
Section 2 is a severability clause
Section 3 provides the effective date
JUSTIFICATION:
The BOE requires applications requesting to receive an absentee ballot
by mail be received no later than fifteen days before an election.
Because one must be 18 years old to request an absentee ballot, certain
pre-registered voters who wish to vote early by mail or by absentee
ballot whose 18th birthdays fall less than 15 days before an election
are effectively disenfranchised because they cannot timely submit their
applications.
This legislation would give pre-registered voters who are 18 years old
by the time of an election the opportunity to vote absentee provided all
other qualifications are met.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately after becoming law
STATE OF NEW YORK
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3250--A
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 2, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. EPSTEIN, KELLES, REYES -- read once and referred
to the Committee on Election Law -- committee discharged, bill
amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said commit-
tee
AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to allowing pre-registered
voters to apply for an absentee or early mail ballot
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 5-102 of the election law is amended by adding a
2 new subdivision 3 to read as follows:
3 3. A person who is pre-registered to vote pursuant to section 5-507
4 of this article, and who is or will be eighteen years of age or over on
5 the day of such election at the time such ballot is cast and counted,
6 shall be considered a qualified voter for the purposes of absentee
7 voting and early mail voting as set forth in titles four and seven of
8 article eight of this chapter.
9 § 2. Severability clause. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdi-
10 vision, section or part of this act shall be adjudged by any court of
11 competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect,
12 impair, or invalidate the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in
13 its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section
14 or part thereof directly involved in the controversy in which such judg-
15 ment shall have been rendered. It is hereby declared to be the intent of
16 the legislature that this act would have been enacted even if such
17 invalid provisions had not been included herein.
18 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06581-02-3
