Bill Text: NY S04208 | 2017-2018 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relates to requiring ballot rotation.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-01-03 - REFERRED TO ELECTIONS [S04208 Detail]

Download: New_York-2017-S04208-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
                                          4208
                               2017-2018 Regular Sessions
                    IN SENATE
                                    February 6, 2017
                                       ___________
        Introduced  by  Sen.  DILAN  -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
          printed to be committed to the Committee on Elections
        AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to requiring ballot  rota-
          tion
          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:
     1    Section 1. Subdivision 6 of section 7-116 of  the  election  law,  the
     2  second  undesignated  paragraph as amended by chapter 121 of the laws of
     3  1997, is amended to read as follows:
     4    6. In the city of New York, the ballot [on  the  voting  machine]  for
     5  primary elections shall conform to the following additional provisions:
     6    The  names  of  the candidates designated for [such] public office [or
     7  party position] in the primary of a party  shall  be  placed  under  the
     8  title  of  the  office  or  position  in the alphabetical order of their
     9  surnames, in the first or lowest numbered assembly district and election
    10  district of any political unit or  subdivision  within  a  county.    If
    11  candidates'  surnames  are  identical,  their  given or first name shall
    12  determine their order.    Thereafter  the  names  shall  be  rotated  by
    13  election  districts  by  transposing  the  first  named candidate to the
    14  bottom of the order at each succeeding election district, so  that  each
    15  name  shall  appear first and in each other position in an equal number,
    16  as nearly as possible, of the election districts [and  except,  further,
    17  that  where  two  or more candidates are to be elected to the same party
    18  position, the names of candidates for such a position  which  appear  on
    19  the same designating petition shall be grouped together on the ballot in
    20  the  order  in  which their names appear on the designating petition and
    21  the group rotated alphabetically in relation to other groups or individ-
    22  ual candidates according to the surname  of  the  first  person  on  the
    23  designating  petition  of such group.  Groups of candidates for delegate
    24  and alternate delegate, and groups of candidates  for  male  and  female
    25  delegate  and  male and female alternate delegate to the same convention

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD09272-01-7
        S. 4208                             2

     1  designated on the same petition shall be rotated together alphabetically
     2  in relation to other groups or individual candidates  according  to  the
     3  surname  of  the first person listed on such designating petition in the
     4  group of candidates for whichever of such delegate or alternate delegate
     5  positions  will  appear  first  on the voting machine. If the rules of a
     6  party committee provide for equal representation of the sexes among  the
     7  members of a state committee   elected from each unit of representation,
     8  elections  for male and female members of such a committee from a single
     9  unit of representation shall be conducted as elections for two different
    10  party positions]. Notwithstanding the provisions of this  paragraph,  if
    11  the  board  of  elections  has assigned numbers to the candidates for an
    12  office [or position] because of identical or similar  names  among  such
    13  candidates, the names of such candidates shall be placed under the title
    14  of  such office [or position] in the order of such numbers in such first
    15  or lowest numbered district, and the  names  shall  not  be  rotated  by
    16  election  district.  Such  names  shall appear in the identical order on
    17  each ballot in each election district.
    18    [County committee candidates or groups of candidates shall be  printed
    19  within  the  first  election  district of each assembly district or part
    20  thereof, according to the priority of filing  of  designating  petitions
    21  and  they  shall  then  be  rotated  by election district by placing the
    22  candidate or group of candidates designated in the same petition as  the
    23  candidate  or group of candidates which was printed first in an election
    24  district at the bottom of the order  in  the  next  succeeding  election
    25  district  in which a candidate or group of candidates designated in such
    26  petition appears on the ballot.
    27    In cases where a name is added to or removed from the ballot by  court
    28  order  too  late  to  make  a  complete adjustment to these requirements
    29  feasible, the name may be added at the bottom of the list of  candidates
    30  in  all  election  districts, or removed from the ballot in all election
    31  districts without changing the previously arranged order of other  names
    32  and  without  invalidating  the  election.] Any inadvertent error in the
    33  order of names discovered too late to correct the order of the names  on
    34  the ballots concerned shall not invalidate an election.
    35    Except  where  a  contest  or  candidate is removed from the ballot by
    36  court order too late to make complete  compliance  with  this  paragraph
    37  feasible,  the  title  of each public office [or party position] and the
    38  names of the candidates for such office [or position] appearing  on  any
    39  [voting  machine]  ballot  used for primary elections in the city of New
    40  York shall appear on such [machine] ballot immediately adjacent  to  one
    41  another,  either  horizontally  or vertically; and no blank spaces shall
    42  separate the names of candidates actually  running  for  an  office  [or
    43  party  position]  on  such  [voting machine] ballot, and no blank spaces
    44  shall separate any two such offices [or positions] which appear on  such
    45  [voting machine] ballot in the same column or row.
    46    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.