S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________

                                  2040

                       2013-2014 Regular Sessions

                          I N  A S S E M B L Y

                               (PREFILED)

                             January 9, 2013
                               ___________

Introduced by M. of A. KAVANAGH, COLTON, GALEF, STEVENSON -- Multi-Spon-
  sored  by  --  M. of A.  CAHILL, CAMARA, GABRYSZAK, GOTTFRIED, HOOPER,
  MAGEE, PERRY -- read once and referred to the  Committee  on  Election
  Law

AN  ACT  to amend the election law, in relation to failure of new regis-
  trants to enroll

  THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  Section  1.  Subdivision  9  of  section 5-210 of the election law, as
amended by chapter 179 of the laws  of  2005,  is  amended  to  read  as
follows:
  9. The county board of elections shall, promptly and in any event, not
later than twenty-one days after receipt by it of the application, veri-
fy the identity of the applicant. In order to do so, the county board of
elections  shall utilize the information provided in the application and
shall attempt to verify such information with the  information  provided
by  the department of motor vehicles, social security administration and
any other lawful available information source. If the  county  board  of
elections is unable to verify the identity of the applicant within twen-
ty-one days of the receipt of the application, it shall immediately take
steps  to  confirm  that  the  information provided by the applicant was
accurately utilized by such county board of  elections,  was  accurately
verified with other information sources and that no data entry error, or
other  similar  type  of  error,  occurred.  Following completion of the
preceding steps, the county board of elections shall mail (a)  a  notice
of  its  approval,  (b) a notice of its approval which includes an indi-
cation that such board has not yet been able to verify the  identity  of
the  applicant and a request for more information so that such verifica-
tion may be completed, or (c) a notice of its rejection of the  applica-
tion  to  the  applicant  in  a  form  approved  by  the  state board of

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

                                                           LBD03145-01-3

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elections. Notices of approval, notices of approval  with  requests  for
more information or notices of rejection shall be sent by nonforwardable
first  class  [or]  return  postage guaranteed mail on which is endorsed
"ADDRESS  CORRECTION  REQUESTED"  and  which contains a request that any
such mail received for persons not residing at the  address  be  dropped
back  in  the  mail.  The  voter's  registration and enrollment shall be
complete upon receipt of the application by the appropriate county board
of elections. The failure of a county board of elections  to  verify  an
applicant's  identity  shall  not  be  the  basis for the rejection of a
voter's application, provided, however, that such  verification  failure
shall  be  the basis for requiring county board of elections to take the
additional verification steps provided by this chapter. The notice shall
also advise the registrant of the date when his registration and enroll-
ment is effective, of the date and the hours of the next regularly sche-
duled primary or general election in which he will be eligible to  vote,
of  the  location of the polling place of the election district in which
he is or will be a qualified voter, whether such polling place is acces-
sible to physically handicapped voters, an  indication  that  physically
handicapped  voters  or  voters who are ill or voters who will be out of
the city or county on the day of the primary or  general  election,  may
obtain  an  absentee  ballot  and  the phone number to call for absentee
ballot applications, the phone numbers to call for location  of  polling
places,  to  obtain  registration  forms and the phone number to call to
indicate that the voter is willing  to  serve  on  election  day  as  an
inspector,  poll clerk or interpreter. The notice of approval, notice of
approval with request for more information or notice of rejection  shall
also  advise  the applicant to notify the board of elections if there is
any inaccuracy. SUCH NOTICE SHALL  INCLUDE  A  STATEMENT  OF  THE  PARTY
ENROLLMENT OF THE REGISTRANT, OR, IF NO PARTY WAS SELECTED BY THE REGIS-
TRANT,  A STATEMENT THAT THE REGISTRANT DID NOT ENROLL IN A PARTY AND IS
NOT ELIGIBLE TO VOTE IN A PARTY PRIMARY ELECTION, AND,  INSTRUCTIONS  ON
HOW  TO  ENROLL  IN A PARTY. The form of such mail notification shall be
prescribed by the state board of elections and shall contain such  other
information  and  instructions as it may reasonably require to carry out
the purposes of this section. The request  for  more  information  shall
inform the voter that "THE FAILURE TO CONTACT THE BOARD OF ELECTIONS AND
CORRECT  ANY  INACCURACIES IN THE APPLICATION OR PROVIDE REQUESTED ADDI-
TIONAL INFORMATION MAY RESULT IN A REQUEST  FOR  IDENTIFICATION  AT  THE
POLLS  IN  ORDER  TO CAST A VOTE ON A VOTING MACHINE." If such notice is
returned undelivered without a new address, the  board  shall  forthwith
send  such applicant a confirmation notice pursuant to the provisions of
section 5-712 of this article  and  place  such  applicant  in  inactive
status.  The  state  board of elections shall prepare uniform notices by
this section as provided for in subdivision eight of  section  3-102  of
this chapter.
  S 2. Subdivision 3 of section 5-302 of the election law, as amended by
chapter 659 of the laws of 1994, is amended to read as follows:
  3.  If  marks are found in more than one of the boxes or circles or if
no marks are found in any of the boxes or  circles  of  any  application
form,  the voter who used the application form shall be deemed not to be
enrolled, and the words blank or void shall  be  entered  in  the  space
reserved  on  his  registration  poll record for the name of a political
party or in the computer files from which the computer generated  regis-
tration  lists are prepared. However if such application form sets forth
the address of prior registration and such prior  registration  had  not
been  previously  cancelled, the party enrollment, if any, which is part

A. 2040                             3

of such prior registration shall be entered in such space on such regis-
tration poll record or in such computer files.   IF  A  NEW  APPLICATION
FORM  DOES NOT CONTAIN A MARK FOR A PARTY ENROLLMENT, BUT, NO LATER THAN
THIRTY  DAYS  AFTER  THE REGISTRANT WAS SENT NOTICE OF THE LACK OF PARTY
ENROLLMENT AS REQUIRED BY SUBDIVISION NINE  OF  SECTION  5-210  OF  THIS
TITLE  AND  AT  LEAST  TWENTY-FIVE  DAYS  BEFORE A PRIMARY ELECTION, THE
REGISTRANT MAKES A PARTY ENROLLMENT CHOICE ON THE CARD PROVIDED WITH THE
NOTICE, SIGNS THE AFFIRMATION CONTAINED THEREIN  AND  MAILS  IT  TO  THE
BOARD  OF ELECTIONS, THEN THE REGISTRANT'S PARTY ENROLLMENT SHALL NOT BE
DEEMED TO BE A CHANGE OF ENROLLMENT AND SHALL BE EFFECTIVE ON  THE  DATE
IT  IS  RECEIVED  BY  THE  COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS. A PARTY ENROLLMENT
MAILED MORE THAN THIRTY DAYS AFTER MAILING OF THE NOTICE OF THE LACK  OF
ENROLLMENT SHALL BE DEEMED TO BE A CHANGE OF ENROLLMENT.
  S  3.  This  act  shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall
have become a law.