Bill Text: NY A06271 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Provides that if a school building is designated as a polling place, the board or body which controls such building shall provide a space that is not easily accessible to areas of the building where instructional activities are taking place, and if such a space cannot be provided that meets such criteria, the board or agency which controls such building shall cancel in-person instructional activities during the operating hours of such poll site.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-03 - referred to election law [A06271 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A06271-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          6271

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                      April 3, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  M.  of  A.  JEAN-PIERRE -- read once and referred to the
          Committee on Election Law

        AN ACT to amend the election law, in  relation  to  the  use  of  school
          buildings as polling sites

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

     1    Section 1. Subdivision 3 of section 4-104  of  the  election  law,  as
     2  amended  by  chapter  694  of  the  laws  of 1989, is amended to read as
     3  follows:
     4    3. A building exempt from taxation shall be used whenever possible  as
     5  a  polling  place if it is situated in the same or a contiguous election
     6  district, and may contain as many distinctly separate polling places  as
     7  public  convenience  may require. The expense, if any, incidental to its
     8  use, shall be paid like the expense of other places of registration  and
     9  voting. If a board or body empowered to designate polling places chooses
    10  a  public  school  building  for such purpose, the board or agency which
    11  controls such building must make available  a  room  or  rooms  in  such
    12  building which are suitable for registration and voting and which are as
    13  close  as  possible  to  a convenient entrance to such building and must
    14  make available any such room or rooms which the board or body  designat-
    15  ing  such  building  determines  are  accessible  to physically disabled
    16  voters as provided in subdivision one-a and shall provide a  space  that
    17  is  not  easily  accessible to areas of the building where instructional
    18  activities are taking place, if such a space  cannot  be  provided  that
    19  meets  such  criteria,  the board or agency which controls such building
    20  shall cancel in-person instructional  activities  during  the  operating
    21  hours of such poll site.  Notwithstanding the provisions of any general,
    22  special  or local law, if a board or body empowered to designate polling
    23  places chooses a publicly owned or leased building, other than a  public
    24  school building, for such purposes the board or body which controls such
    25  building  must make available a room or rooms in such building which are

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD07095-02-3
        A. 6271                             2

     1  suitable for registration and voting and which are as close as  possible
     2  to  a  convenient entrance to such building, and must make available any
     3  such room or rooms which the board or  body  designating  such  building
     4  determines  are  accessible  to  physically  disabled voters unless, not
     5  later than thirty days after notice of  its  designation  as  a  polling
     6  place,  the  board  or  body  controlling such building, files a written
     7  request for a cancellation of such designation with the  board  or  body
     8  empowered  to designate polling places on such form as shall be provided
     9  by the board  or  body  making  such  designation.  The  board  or  body
    10  empowered  to  so designate shall, within twenty days after such request
    11  is filed, determine whether the use of such building as a polling  place
    12  would unreasonably interfere with the usual activities conducted in such
    13  building and upon such determination, may cancel such designation.
    14    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.