Bill Text: NY A10504 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced


Bill Title: Relates to designating early polling places.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 9-1)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-05-29 - referred to election law [A10504 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A10504-Introduced.html



                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          10504

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                      May 29, 2024
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  COMMITTEE  ON RULES -- (at request of M. of A. Bores) --
          read once and referred to the Committee on Election Law

        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
    24  licensed  to  sell  alcoholic  beverages  for on premises consumption is
    25  conducted on any day of local registration or  of  voting  shall  be  so
    26  designated.]  If,  within  the  discretion  of  the board of elections a
    27  particular polling place so  designated  is  subsequently  found  to  be
    28  unsuitable  or  unsafe  or should circumstances arise that make a desig-

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD03667-01-3

        A. 10504                            2

     1  nated polling place unsuitable or unsafe, then the board of elections is
     2  empowered to select an alternative meeting place. In  the  city  of  New
     3  York,  the  board  of  elections shall designate such polling places and
     4  alternate  registration  places  if the polling place cannot be used for
     5  voter registration on Saturdays.
     6    3. A board or body empowered to designate polling places shall  desig-
     7  nate  any  public building as a polling place to the extent practicable,
     8  provided, however, that in no case shall a  public  school  building  be
     9  designated  as  an  early voting polling location. If additional polling
    10  places shall be needed, a building exempt from taxation or owned  by  an
    11  entity  receiving  more  than  one million dollars in annual state grant
    12  funding shall be used [whenever possible] as a polling place  if  it  is
    13  situated  in the same or a contiguous election district, and may contain
    14  as many distinctly separate polling places  as  public  convenience  may
    15  require, unless the owner or operator of such building shall demonstrate
    16  that such use is significantly incompatible with the primary function of
    17  the  entity.  The  expense, if any, incidental to its use, shall be paid
    18  like the expense of other places of registration and voting. If a  board
    19  or  body  empowered  to designate polling places chooses a public school
    20  building for such purpose, the  board  or  agency  which  controls  such
    21  building  must make available a room or rooms in such building which are
    22  suitable for registration and voting and which are as close as  possible
    23  to  a  convenient  entrance to such building and must make available any
    24  such room or rooms which the board or  body  designating  such  building
    25  determines  are  accessible to physically disabled voters as provided in
    26  subdivision  one-a.  Notwithstanding  the  provisions  of  any  general,
    27  special  or local law, if a board or body empowered to designate polling
    28  places chooses a publicly owned or leased building, other than a  public
    29  school building, for such purposes the board or body which controls such
    30  building  must make available a room or rooms in such building which are
    31  suitable for registration and voting and which are as close as  possible
    32  to  a  convenient entrance to such building, and must make available any
    33  such room or rooms which the board or  body  designating  such  building
    34  determines  are  accessible  to  physically  disabled voters unless, not
    35  later than thirty days after notice of  its  designation  as  a  polling
    36  place,  the  board  or  body  controlling such building, files a written
    37  request for a cancellation of such designation with the  board  or  body
    38  empowered  to designate polling places on such form as shall be provided
    39  by the board  or  body  making  such  designation.  The  board  or  body
    40  empowered  to  so designate shall, within twenty days after such request
    41  is filed, determine whether the use of such building as a polling  place
    42  would unreasonably interfere with the usual activities conducted in such
    43  building and upon such determination, may cancel such designation.
    44    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
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