Bill Text: NY S01227 | 2021-2022 | General Assembly | Introduced

New York Senate Bill 1227 (Prior Session Legislation)

Introduced

Bill Title: Establishes the crime of voter intimidation or harassment and prohibits persons who have been convicted of such crime from registering for or voting at an election.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-01-05 - REFERRED TO CODES [S01227 Detail]

Download: New_York-2021-S01227-Introduced.html




                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          1227

                               2021-2022 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                     January 8, 2021
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sen. RITCHIE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
          printed to be committed to the Committee on Codes

        AN ACT to amend the penal law and  the  election  law,  in  relation  to
          establishing the crime of voter intimidation or harassment

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. The penal law is amended by adding a new section 240.78  to
     2  read as follows:
     3  § 240.78 Voter intimidation or harassment.
     4    A person is guilty of voter intimidation or harassment when he or she,
     5  with  intent  to  influence how an individual votes in an election under
     6  the election law or the education law of this state:
     7    1. Intentionally harasses or intimidates another person by engaging in
     8  a course of conduct or by committing acts which  place  such  person  in
     9  reasonable fear of physical injury; or
    10    2. Threatens retaliation against such individual based on the individ-
    11  ual  voting  for a certain candidate, proposition or ballot measure. For
    12  the purposes of this section retaliation includes, but  is  not  limited
    13  to,  changes  to  employment  status,  including  changes to job titles,
    14  hours, or wages.
    15    Voter intimidation or harassment is a class A misdemeanor.
    16    § 2. Subdivision 2 of section 5-106 of the election law, as amended by
    17  chapter 373 of the laws of 1978, is amended to read as follows:
    18    2. No person who has been convicted of a felony pursuant to  the  laws
    19  of  this  state or convicted of a misdemeanor pursuant to section 240.78
    20  of the penal law, shall have the right to register for or  vote  at  any
    21  election  unless  he  or she shall have been pardoned or restored to the
    22  rights of citizenship by the governor, or his or her maximum sentence of
    23  imprisonment has expired, or he or she has been discharged from  parole.
    24  The  governor,  however,  may attach as a condition to any such pardon a
    25  provision that any such person shall not  have  the  right  of  suffrage
    26  until it shall have been separately restored to him or her.
    27    § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD05037-01-1