Bill Text: NY S00658 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Establishes no polling place shall be located on the premises of any public or private elementary or secondary school or a school for preschool children.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-03 - REFERRED TO ELECTIONS [S00658 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-S00658-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                           658

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                     January 5, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sen.  ORTT  --  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 establishing no  school
          shall serve as a polling place

          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 and a new subdi-
     3  vision 7-a is added to read as 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 choos-
    10  es  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.] Notwithstanding the provisions
    17  of any general, special or local law, if a board or  body  empowered  to
    18  designate  polling  places chooses a publicly owned or leased building[,
    19  other than a public school building,] for such  purposes  the  board  or
    20  body which controls such building must make available a room or rooms in
    21  such  building  which are suitable for registration and voting and which
    22  are as close as possible to a convenient entrance to such building,  and
    23  must  make  available  any  such  room  or rooms which the board or body
    24  designating such building determines are accessible to physically  disa-
    25  bled  voters  unless,  not  later  than  thirty days after notice of its

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD01044-01-3
        S. 658                              2

     1  designation as a polling place,  the  board  or  body  controlling  such
     2  building, files a written request for a cancellation of such designation
     3  with  the  board  or  body empowered to designate polling places on such
     4  form  as shall be provided by the board or body making such designation.
     5  The board or body empowered to so designate shall,  within  twenty  days
     6  after  such request is filed, determine whether the use of such building
     7  as a polling place would unreasonably interfere with  the  usual  activ-
     8  ities conducted in such building and upon such determination, may cancel
     9  such designation.
    10    7-a.  No  polling place shall be located on the premises of any public
    11  or private elementary or secondary school  or  a  school  for  preschool
    12  children,  as  that term is defined in paragraph i of subdivision one of
    13  section forty-four hundred ten of the education law.
    14    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.