Bill Text: NY A06513 | 2021-2022 | 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 (Republican 9-5)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-01-05 - referred to election law [A06513 Detail]

Download: New_York-2021-A06513-Introduced.html



                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          6513

                               2021-2022 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                     March 19, 2021
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by M. of A. GALEF, SANTABARBARA, WALLACE, THIELE, B. MILLER,
          ASHBY, BRABENEC, DeSTEFANO, McDONOUGH,  MORINELLO,  NORRIS,  SMITH  --
          Multi-Sponsored  by  --  M.  of A. ENGLEBRIGHT, WALSH -- read once and
          referred to the Committee on Election Law

        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

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD10415-01-1

        A. 6513                             2

     1  a board or body empowered to designate polling places chooses a publicly
     2  owned  or leased building, other than a public school building, for such
     3  purposes the board or body which controls such building must make avail-
     4  able  a  room or rooms in such building which are suitable for registra-
     5  tion and voting and which are as  close  as  possible  to  a  convenient
     6  entrance  to  such  building,  and  must make available any such room or
     7  rooms which the board or body designating such building  determines  are
     8  accessible  to  physically disabled voters unless, not later than thirty
     9  days after notice of its designation as a polling place,  the  board  or
    10  body  controlling such building, files a written request for a cancella-
    11  tion of such designation with the board or body empowered  to  designate
    12  polling  places  on  such form as shall be provided by the board or body
    13  making such designation. The board or body  empowered  to  so  designate
    14  shall, within twenty days after such request is filed, determine whether
    15  the use of such building as a polling place would unreasonably interfere
    16  with  the  usual  activities  conducted  in  such building and upon such
    17  determination, may cancel such designation.
    18    § 2. Subdivision 1 of section 2002 of the education law, as amended by
    19  section 5 of part C of chapter 58 of the laws of  1998,  is  amended  to
    20  read as follows:
    21    1.  The  annual  meeting and election of each school district shall be
    22  held on the third Tuesday of May in each year,  provided,  however  that
    23  such  annual meeting and election shall be held on the second Tuesday in
    24  May if the commissioner at the request of a local school board certifies
    25  no later than March first that such election would conflict  with  reli-
    26  gious  observances.  Unless  the  hour and place thereof shall have been
    27  fixed by a vote of a previous district meeting, the same shall  be  held
    28  in the schoolhouse at seven-thirty o'clock in the evening in the case of
    29  a  school  district  that  is  not  divided  into election districts and
    30  conducts its election or vote by recording the ayes or noes of the qual-
    31  ified voters attending, or, in the case of all other  districts,  during
    32  at  least six consecutive hours after six a.m., two of which hours shall
    33  be after six p.m. as determined by resolution of the trustees  or  board
    34  of education, provided, however, that the trustees or board of education
    35  of any school district that conducted its annual meeting at seven-thirty
    36  p.m.  in  nineteen  hundred ninety-seven may conduct its annual election
    37  and budget vote at such time in  nineteen  hundred  ninety-eight.  If  a
    38  district  possesses  more  than one schoolhouse, it shall be held in the
    39  one usually employed for that purpose, unless the trustees or  board  of
    40  education  designate  another,  provided  that if the school district is
    41  divided into election districts such annual meeting and  election  shall
    42  be  held  at such place in each election district as the board of educa-
    43  tion may designate. If by resolution of the trustees or board of  educa-
    44  tion the district [possesses no schoolhouse, or if the schoolhouse shall
    45  not  be accessible or adequate, then the] elects to designate a publicly
    46  accessible location within district boundaries  that  is  not  a  school
    47  building  for  purposes  of  conducting the annual meeting and election,
    48  such annual meeting and election shall be held  at  such  place  as  the
    49  trustees  or  board  of  education, or the clerk, shall designate in the
    50  notice.
    51    § 3. Section 2604 of the education law, as amended by chapter  741  of
    52  the laws of 1954, is amended to read as follows:
    53    §  2604.  Division  of  city  school  district  into  school  election
    54  districts; elections held in schoolhouses.   The board of  education  of
    55  each  city  school  district  shall  adopt a resolution on or before the
    56  first day of April, preceding the  first  annual  school  election  held

        A. 6513                             3

     1  hereunder,  dividing  the  city  school  district  into  school election
     2  districts.  The city school district shall be so divided that if circum-
     3  stances will permit, school election districts will be coterminous  with
     4  one  or more general election districts, and that, if practicable, there
     5  shall be  a  schoolhouse  in  each  election  district.    The  election
     6  districts  thus  formed  shall  continue  in existence until modified by
     7  resolution of the board of education.  Such resolution shall  accurately
     8  describe  the  boundaries  of such election districts by streets, alleys
     9  and highways, when practicable.  School elections shall be held in  such
    10  school  election  districts  so  far  as  may  be possible in the public
    11  schoolhouses therein[. If there is no public  schoolhouse  in  a  school
    12  election  district,];  provided, however, the board of education [shall]
    13  may by resolution designate [the place] a publicly  accessible  alterna-
    14  tive  location  where  the  election  in  such  district  shall be held.
    15  Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section, the  board  of
    16  education  of  any city school district of a city of less than ten thou-
    17  sand inhabitants may, by resolution, designate the  entire  city  school
    18  district as a single school district.
    19    § 4. This act shall take effect immediately.
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