Bill Text: NY A00456 | 2013-2014 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Designates state and city universities of New York as participating agencies for voter registration form distribution and assistance; permits independent institutions to do the same upon request; requires SUNY, CUNY and independent institutions to offer each applicant an application for an absentee ballot.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 16-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-01-08 - referred to election law [A00456 Detail]
Download: New_York-2013-A00456-Introduced.html
S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________
456
2013-2014 Regular Sessions
I N A S S E M B L Y
(PREFILED)
January 9, 2013
___________
Introduced by M. of A. DINOWITZ, JACOBS, SCARBOROUGH, KAVANAGH, JAFFEE
-- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. CLARK, COLTON, GLICK, GOTTFRIED,
GUNTHER, PERRY, SWEENEY, WEISENBERG -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Election Law
AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to designating the state
and city universities of New York as participating agencies for voter
registration form distribution and assistance, and permitting inde-
pendent institutions of higher education to do the same upon request
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
1 Section 1. The opening paragraph of section 5-211 of the election law,
2 as amended by chapter 200 of the laws of 1996, is amended to read as
3 follows:
4 Each agency designated as a participating agency under the provisions
5 of this section shall implement and administer a program of distribution
6 of voter registration forms pursuant to the provisions of this section.
7 The following offices which provide public assistance and/or provide
8 state funded programs primarily engaged in providing services to persons
9 with disabilities are hereby designated as voter registration agencies:
10 designated as the state agencies which provide public assistance are the
11 department of [social services] FAMILY ASSISTANCE and the department of
12 health. Also designated as public assistance agencies are all agencies
13 of local government that provide such assistance. Designated as state
14 agencies that provide programs primarily engaged in providing services
15 to people with disabilities are the department of labor, office for the
16 aging, division of veterans' affairs, office of mental health, office of
17 vocational and educational services for individuals with disabilities,
18 commission on quality of care for the mentally disabled, office of
19 mental retardation and developmental disabilities, commission for the
20 blind and visually handicapped, office of alcoholism and substance abuse
EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02656-01-3
A. 456 2
1 services, the office of the advocate for the disabled and all offices
2 which administer programs established or funded by such agencies. Addi-
3 tional [state] PARTICIPATING agencies designated as voter registration
4 offices are the department of state [and], the [division] DISTRICT
5 OFFICES of THE workers' compensation BOARD, AND ALL INSTITUTIONS OF THE
6 STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AND THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK; AND
7 ANY DEGREE-GRANTING INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION DESCRIBED IN ARTI-
8 CLES ONE HUNDRED FIFTEEN, ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-ONE, ONE HUNDRED
9 TWENTY-THREE, ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-SIX AND ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-NINE OF
10 TITLE VII OF THE EDUCATION LAW WHICH ELECTS TO BE A PARTICIPATING AGENCY
11 BY FILING WITH THE STATE BOARD OF ELECTIONS A NOTICE IN WHICH IT MAKES
12 SUCH AN ELECTION. Such agencies shall be required to offer voter regis-
13 tration forms to persons upon initial application for services, FOR
14 PARTICIPATION IN ACTIVITIES OR FOR USE OF FACILITIES, AND UPON renewal
15 or recertification for services, PARTICIPATION IN ACTIVITIES OR USE OF
16 FACILITIES, and UPON change of address relating to such services,
17 PARTICIPATION IN ACTIVITIES OR USE OF FACILITIES OF THE AGENCY. Such
18 agencies shall also be responsible for providing assistance to appli-
19 cants in completing voter registration forms, receiving and transmitting
20 the completed application form from all applicants who wish to have such
21 form transmitted to the appropriate board of elections. The state board
22 of elections shall, together with representatives of the UNITED STATES
23 department of defense, develop and implement procedures for including
24 recruitment offices of the armed forces of the United States as voter
25 registration offices when such offices are so designated by federal law.
26 The state board OF ELECTIONS shall also make request of the United
27 States [Immigration and Naturalization Service] CITIZENSHIP AND IMMI-
28 GRATION SERVICES to include applications for registration by mail with
29 any materials which are given to new citizens. All institutions of the
30 state university of New York and the city university of New York, shall,
31 at the beginning of the school year, and again in January of a year in
32 which the president of the United States is to be elected, provide an
33 application for VOTER registration to each student in each such institu-
34 tion. The state board of elections may, by regulation, grant a waiver
35 from any or all of the requirements of this section to any office or
36 program of an agency, if it determines that it is not feasible for such
37 office or program to administer such requirement.
38 S 2. Subdivision 4 of section 5-211 of the election law, as added by
39 chapter 659 of the laws of 1994, is amended to read as follows:
40 4. Each participating agency shall provide to each applicant who does
41 not decline to register to vote the same degree of assistance with
42 regard to the completion of the registration application form as is
43 provided by the agency with regard to the completion of its own form
44 unless the applicant refuses such assistance. ALL INSTITUTIONS OF THE
45 STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AND ALL DEGREE-GRANTING INSTITUTIONS OF
46 HIGHER EDUCATION DESCRIBED IN ARTICLES ONE HUNDRED FIFTEEN, ONE HUNDRED
47 TWENTY-ONE, ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-THREE, ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-SIX AND ONE
48 HUNDRED TWENTY-NINE OF TITLE VII OF THE EDUCATION LAW WHICH HAVE ELECTED
49 TO BE PARTICIPATING AGENCIES PURSUANT TO THE OPENING PARAGRAPH OF THIS
50 SECTION SHALL ALSO PROVIDE SUCH LEVEL OF ASSISTANCE TO EACH PERSON WHO
51 WISHES TO COMPLETE AN APPLICATION FOR AN ABSENTEE BALLOT.
52 S 3. The opening paragraph of subdivision 8 of section 5-211 of the
53 election law, as amended by chapter 659 of the laws of 1994, is amended
54 to read as follows:
55 Each participating agency, department, division or office that makes
56 available voter registration forms OR ABSENTEE BALLOT APPLICATIONS, OR
A. 456 3
1 BOTH, pursuant to this section shall offer with each application for the
2 services or assistance, PARTICIPATION IN ACTIVITIES OR USE OF FACILITIES
3 of such agency, department, division or office and with each recertif-
4 ication, renewal or change of address form relating to such service or
5 assistance, PARTICIPATION IN ACTIVITIES OR USE OF FACILITIES, a regis-
6 tration form together with instructions relating to eligibility to
7 register and for completing the form except that forms used by the
8 department of [social services] FAMILY ASSISTANCE for the initial appli-
9 cation for services, renewal or recertification for services and change
10 of address relating to such services shall physically incorporate a
11 voter registration application in a fashion that permits the voter
12 registration portion of the agency form to be detached therefrom. ALL
13 INSTITUTIONS OF THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AND ALL DEGREE-GRANTING
14 INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION DESCRIBED IN ARTICLES ONE HUNDRED
15 FIFTEEN, ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-ONE, ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-THREE, ONE HUNDRED
16 TWENTY-SIX AND ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-NINE OF TITLE VII OF THE EDUCATION LAW
17 WHICH HAVE ELECTED TO BE PARTICIPATING AGENCIES PURSUANT TO THE OPENING
18 PARAGRAPH OF THIS SECTION SHALL ALSO OFFER EACH SUCH APPLICANT AN APPLI-
19 CATION FOR AN ABSENTEE BALLOT. Such voter registration application shall
20 be designed so as to ensure the confidentiality of the source of the
21 application. Included on each participating agency's application for
22 services or assistance or on a separate form shall be:
23 S 4. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after
24 it shall have become a law, provided however, that effective immediate-
25 ly, the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rules or regulations
26 necessary for the implementation of this act on its effective date are
27 authorized and directed to be made and completed on or before such
28 effective date.
