Bill Text: NY S05287 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Provides that school districts may have the authority to decline or change a school building's designation as a polling place.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-1)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-01-08 - REFERRED TO ELECTIONS [S05287 Detail]
Download: New_York-2019-S05287-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 5287 2019-2020 Regular Sessions IN SENATE April 23, 2019 ___________ Introduced by Sen. CARLUCCI -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Elections AN ACT to amend the election law and the education law, in relation to providing public school districts the authority to decline or change a school building's designation as a polling location 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 of this section; provided, 17 however, not later than thirty days after a public school building 18 receives notice of its designation as a polling place, the board or 19 agency controlling such building may file a written request for a 20 cancellation of such designation. Upon receipt of such request, the 21 board or body empowered to so designate shall cancel such designation. 22 Notwithstanding the provisions of any general, special or local law, if 23 a board or body empowered to designate polling places chooses a publicly 24 owned or leased building, other than a public school building, for such EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD08884-01-9S. 5287 2 1 purposes the board or body which controls such building must make avail- 2 able a room or rooms in such building which are suitable for registra- 3 tion and voting and which are as close as possible to a convenient 4 entrance to such building, and must make available any such room or 5 rooms which the board or body designating such building determines are 6 accessible to physically disabled voters unless, not later than thirty 7 days after notice of its designation as a polling place, the board or 8 body controlling such building, files a written request for a cancella- 9 tion of such designation with the board or body empowered to designate 10 polling places on such form as shall be provided by the board or body 11 making such designation. The board or body empowered to so designate 12 shall, within twenty days after such request is filed, determine whether 13 the use of such building as a polling place would unreasonably interfere 14 with the usual activities conducted in such building and upon such 15 determination, may cancel such designation. 16 § 2. Subdivision 1 of section 2002 of the education law, as amended by 17 section 5 of part C of chapter 58 of the laws of 1998, is amended to 18 read as follows: 19 1. The annual meeting and election of each school district shall be 20 held on the third Tuesday of May in each year, provided, however that 21 such annual meeting and election shall be held on the second Tuesday in 22 May if the commissioner at the request of a local school board certifies 23 no later than March first that such election would conflict with reli- 24 gious observances. Unless the hour and place thereof shall have been 25 fixed by a vote of a previous district meeting, the same shall be held 26 in the schoolhouse at seven-thirty o'clock in the evening in the case of 27 a school district that is not divided into election districts and 28 conducts its election or vote by recording the ayes or noes of the qual- 29 ified voters attending, or, in the case of all other districts, during 30 at least six consecutive hours after six a.m., two of which hours shall 31 be after six p.m. as determined by resolution of the trustees or board 32 of education, provided, however, that the trustees or board of education 33 of any school district that conducted its annual meeting at seven-thirty 34 p.m. in nineteen hundred ninety-seven may conduct its annual election 35 and budget vote at such time in nineteen hundred ninety-eight. If a 36 district possesses more than one schoolhouse, it shall be held in the 37 one usually employed for that purpose, unless the trustees or board of 38 education designate another, provided that if the school district is 39 divided into election districts such annual meeting and election shall 40 be held at such place in each election district as the board of educa- 41 tion may designate. If by resolution of the trustees or board of educa- 42 tion the district [possesses no schoolhouse, or if the schoolhouse shall43not be accessible or adequate, then the] elects to designate a publicly 44 accessible location within district boundaries that is not a school 45 building for purposes of conducting the annual meeting and election, 46 such annual meeting and election shall be held at such place as the 47 trustees or board of education, or the clerk, shall designate in the 48 notice. 49 § 3. Section 2604 of the education law, as amended by chapter 741 of 50 the laws of 1954, is amended to read as follows: 51 § 2604. Division of city school district into school election 52 districts; elections held in schoolhouses. The board of education of 53 each city school district shall adopt a resolution on or before the 54 first day of April, preceding the first annual school election held 55 hereunder, dividing the city school district into school election 56 districts. The city school district shall be so divided that if circum-S. 5287 3 1 stances will permit, school election districts will be coterminous with 2 one or more general election districts, and that, if practicable, there 3 shall be a schoolhouse in each election district. The election 4 districts thus formed shall continue in existence until modified by 5 resolution of the board of education. Such resolution shall accurately 6 describe the boundaries of such election districts by streets, alleys 7 and highways, when practicable. School elections shall be held in such 8 school election districts so far as may be possible in the public 9 schoolhouses therein[. If there is no public schoolhouse in a school10election district,]; provided, however, the board of education [shall] 11 may by resolution designate [the place] a publicly accessible alterna- 12 tive location where the election in such district shall be held. 13 Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section, the board of 14 education of any city school district of a city of less than ten thou- 15 sand inhabitants may, by resolution, designate the entire city school 16 district as a single school district. 17 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately.
