STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 9270 IN SENATE May 8, 2024 ___________ Introduced by Sen. KAVANAGH -- (at request of the State Board of Elections) -- 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 the term paper ballot 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 481 of the laws of 2023, is amended as follows: 3 1. The board of elections, between the third Tuesday in April and the 4 second Friday in May in each year, shall send by mail on which is 5 endorsed such language designated by the state board of elections to 6 ensure postal authorities do not forward such mail but return it to the 7 board of elections with forwarding information, when it cannot be deliv- 8 ered as addressed and which contains a request that any such mail 9 received for persons not residing at the address be dropped back in the 10 mail, a communication, in a form approved by the state board of 11 elections, to every registered voter who has been registered without a 12 change of address since the beginning of such year, except that the 13 board of elections shall not be required to send such communications to 14 voters in inactive status. The communication shall notify the voter in 15 bold print contained in such notice of the days and hours of the ensuing 16 primary and general elections, the place where [he or she] such voter 17 appears by [his or her] such voter's registration records to be entitled 18 to vote, and also in other than bold type of the fact that voters who 19 have moved or will have moved from the address where they were last 20 registered must either notify the board of elections of [his or her] 21 such voter's new address or vote by [paper] affidavit ballot at the 22 polling place for [his or her] such voter's new address even if such 23 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- 26 cation shall contain a conspicuous notice in all capital letters and 27 bold font notifying the voter of the primary date. If the location of 28 the polling place for the voter's election district has been moved, the EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD15511-01-4
S. 9270 2 1 communication shall contain the following legend in bold type: "YOUR 2 POLLING PLACE HAS BEEN CHANGED. YOU NOW VOTE AT..........". The communi- 3 cation shall indicate that any registered voter may vote early by mail 4 by applying for an early mail ballot, and provide information on how to 5 apply for an early mail ballot. The communication shall also indicate 6 whether the polling place is accessible to physically disabled voters, 7 that a voter who will be out of the city or county on the day of the 8 primary or general election or a voter who is ill or physically disabled 9 may obtain an absentee ballot, that a physically disabled voter whose 10 polling place is not accessible may request that [his] such voter's 11 registration record be moved to an election district which has a polling 12 place which is accessible, the phone number to call for applications to 13 move a registration record or for early mail or 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 immediately.