General Assembly Substitute Bill No. 5611
February Session, 2016 *_____HB05611GAE___032116____*
General Assembly
Substitute Bill No. 5611
February Session, 2016
*_____HB05611GAE___032116____*
AN ACT CONCERNING THE HOLDING OF PUBLIC HEARINGS PRIOR TO THE DETERMINATION OF POLLING PLACES BY MUNICIPAL LEGISLATIVE BODIES.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:
Section 1. Section 9-169 of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective from passage):
(a) The legislative body of any town, consolidated town and city or consolidated town and borough may divide and, from time to time, redivide such municipality into voting districts. The registrars of voters of any municipality taking such action shall provide a suitable polling place in each district but, if the registrars fail to agree as to the location of any polling place or places, the legislative body shall determine the location thereof in accordance with subsection (b) of this section. Polling places to be used in an election shall be determined at least thirty-one days before such election, and such polling places shall not be changed within said period of thirty-one days, except that, if the municipal clerk and registrars of voters of a municipality unanimously find that any such polling place within such municipality has been rendered unusable within such period, they shall forthwith designate another polling place to be used in place of the one so rendered unusable and shall give adequate notice that such polling place has been so changed. The registrars of voters shall keep separate lists of the electors residing in each district, [and] shall appoint for each district a moderator in accordance with the provisions of section 9-229 and such other election officials as are required by law [,] and shall designate one of the moderators so appointed or any other elector of such town to be the head moderator for the purpose of declaring the results of elections in the whole municipality. The registrars may also designate a deputy head moderator to assist the head moderator in the performance of his duties, provided the deputy head moderator and the head moderator shall not be enrolled in the same major party, as defined in subdivision (5) of section 9-372. The selectmen, town clerk, registrars of voters and all other officers of the municipality shall perform the duties required of them by law with respect to elections in each voting district established in accordance with this section. Voting district lines shall not be drawn by a municipality so as to conflict with the lines of congressional districts, [senate] senatorial districts or assembly districts as established by law, except (1) as provided in section 9-169d, and (2) that as to municipal elections, any part of a split voting district containing less than two hundred electors may be combined with another voting district adjacent thereto from which all and the same officers are elected at such municipal election. Any change in the boundaries of voting districts made [within] less than ninety days prior to any election or primary shall not apply with respect to such election or primary. The provisions of this section shall prevail over any contrary provision of any charter or special act.
(b) If the legislative body of any municipality is required to determine the location of any polling place pursuant to subsection (a) of this section, the legislative body shall conduct a public hearing in such municipality on any proposed location of such polling place prior to the final determination of such location. The legislative body shall cause notice of the time, place and subject of such public hearing to be published, not more than ten days and not less than three days prior to such public hearing, in a newspaper having a circulation in the municipality.
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections:
Section 1 from passage 9-169
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections:
Section 1
from passage
9-169
Statement of Legislative Commissioners:
In Subsec. (a), a comma was inserted before "except that" in the third sentence for proper grammar, "senate" was bracketed and "senatorial" was inserted in its place for consistency and other technical and conforming changes were made.
GAE Joint Favorable Subst.
GAE
Joint Favorable Subst.