Bill Text: NY A02338 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

---

Bill Title: Exempts public school buildings with instructional space from being designated as early polling locations; allows school districts to decline school building designations as early polling locations.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-03 - referred to election law [A02338 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A02338-Introduced.html

---

                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          2338

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    January 25, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by M. of A. STIRPE, WALLACE -- read once and referred to the
          Committee on Election Law

        AN ACT to amend the election  law,  in  relation  to  exempting  certain
          public  school  buildings  from  being  designated  as  early  polling
          locations

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

     1    Section  1.  Subdivision  2  of  section  8-600 of the election law is
     2  amended by adding a new paragraph (i) to read as follows:
     3    (i) No public school building with instructional space shall be desig-
     4  nated as an early polling location.
     5    § 2. Subdivision 3 of section 4-104 of the election law, as amended by
     6  chapter 694 of the laws of 1989, is amended to read as follows:
     7    3. A building exempt from taxation shall be used whenever possible  as
     8  a  polling  place if it is situated in the same or a contiguous election
     9  district, and may contain as many distinctly separate polling places  as
    10  public  convenience  may require. The expense, if any, incidental to its
    11  use, shall be paid like the expense of other places of registration  and
    12  voting. If a board or body empowered to designate polling places chooses
    13  a  public  school  building  for such purpose, the board or agency which
    14  controls such building must make available  a  room  or  rooms  in  such
    15  building which are suitable for registration and voting and which are as
    16  close  as  possible  to  a convenient entrance to such building and must
    17  make available any such room or rooms which the board or body  designat-
    18  ing  such  building  determines  are  accessible  to physically disabled
    19  voters as provided in subdivision one-a.  Notwithstanding the provisions
    20  of this subdivision, no board or body  empowered  to  designate  polling
    21  places shall designate a public school building with instructional space
    22  as  an  early  polling  location, and if such board or body designates a
    23  public school building that does not  have  instructional  space  as  an
    24  early  polling  location, the superintendent of such school district may

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD01771-01-3
        A. 2338                             2

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