Bill Text: NY A01385 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: 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.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)

Status: (Passed) 2020-10-07 - signed chap.200 [A01385 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-A01385-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
                                          1385
                               2019-2020 Regular Sessions
                   IN ASSEMBLY
                                    January 15, 2019
                                       ___________
        Introduced  by M. of A. PERRY -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. ORTIZ --
          read once and referred to the Committee on Election Law
        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  amended by chapter 3 of the laws of 2018, is amended to read as follows:
     3    1.  The  board  of elections, between August first and August fifth of
     4  each year, shall send by mail on which is endorsed such language  desig-
     5  nated  by  the  state board of elections to ensure postal authorities do
     6  not forward such mail but return it  to  the  board  of  elections  with
     7  forwarding  information,  when  it  cannot be delivered as addressed and
     8  which contains a request that any such mail  received  for  persons  not
     9  residing at the address be dropped back in the mail, a communication, in
    10  a  form  approved  by  the state board of elections, to every registered
    11  voter who has been registered without a  change  of  address  since  the
    12  beginning  of such year, except that the board of elections shall not be
    13  required to send such communications to voters in inactive  status.  The
    14  communication  shall  notify the voter in bold print of at least sixteen
    15  point font contained in such notice of the days and hours of the ensuing
    16  primary and general elections, the place where he appears by his  regis-
    17  tration records to be entitled to vote, and also in other than bold type
    18  of  the  fact  that  voters  who  have moved or will have moved from the
    19  address where they were last registered must  re-register  or,  that  if
    20  such  move  was to another address in the same county or city, that such
    21  voter may either notify the board of elections of  his  new  address  or
    22  vote  by  paper  ballot at the polling place for his new address even if
    23  such voter has not re-registered, or otherwise  notified  the  board  of
    24  elections  of  the change of address. If the primary will not be held on
    25  the first Tuesday after the second Monday  in  September,  the  communi-
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD06676-01-9
        A. 1385                             2
     1  cation  shall  contain  a  conspicuous notice in all capital letters and
     2  bold font notifying the voter of the primary date. If  the  location  of
     3  the  polling place for the voter's election district has been moved, the
     4  communication  shall  contain  the  following legend in bold type: "YOUR
     5  POLLING PLACE HAS BEEN CHANGED. YOU NOW VOTE AT..........". The communi-
     6  cation shall also indicate whether the polling place  is  accessible  to
     7  physically  disabled voters, that a voter who will be out of the city or
     8  county on the day of the primary or general election or a voter  who  is
     9  ill  or  physically disabled may obtain an absentee ballot, that a phys-
    10  ically disabled voter whose polling place is not accessible may  request
    11  that  his registration record be moved to an election district which has
    12  a polling place which is accessible, the phone number to call for appli-
    13  cations to move a registration record or for  absentee  ballot  applica-
    14  tions,  the  phone  number  to call for the location of registration and
    15  polling places, the phone number to call to indicate that the  voter  is
    16  willing  to  serve on election day as an election inspector, poll clerk,
    17  interpreter or in other capacities, the phone number to call  to  obtain
    18  an  application  for  registration  by  mail, and such other information
    19  concerning the elections or registration as the board  may  include.  In
    20  lieu  of sending such communication to every registered voter, the board
    21  of elections may send a single communication to a  household  containing
    22  more  than  one  registered  voter,  provided that the names of all such
    23  voters appear as part of the address on such communication.
    24    § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of December next succeed-
    25  ing the date on which it shall have become a law.