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

                                  2216

                       2013-2014 Regular Sessions

                          I N  A S S E M B L Y

                               (PREFILED)

                             January 9, 2013
                               ___________

Introduced by M. of A. V. LOPEZ -- read once and referred to the Commit-
  tee on Election Law

AN  ACT to amend the election law, in relation to requiring ballot rota-
  tion

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

  Section  1.  Subdivision  6  of section 7-116 of the election law, the
second undesignated paragraph as amended by chapter 121 of the  laws  of
1997, is amended to read as follows:
  6.  In  the  city  of New York, the ballot [on the voting machine] for
primary elections shall conform to the following additional provisions:
  The names of the candidates designated for [such]  public  office  [or
party  position]  in  the  primary  of a party shall be placed under the
title of the office or position  in  the  alphabetical  order  of  their
surnames, in the first or lowest numbered assembly district and election
district  of  any  political  unit  or subdivision within a county.   If
candidates' surnames are identical, their  given  or  first  name  shall
determine  their  order.    Thereafter  the  names  shall  be rotated by
election districts by transposing  the  first  named  candidate  to  the
bottom  of  the order at each succeeding election district, so that each
name shall appear first and in each other position in an  equal  number,
as  nearly  as possible, of the election districts [and except, further,
that where two or more candidates are to be elected to  the  same  party
position,  the  names  of candidates for such a position which appear on
the same designating petition shall be grouped together on the ballot in
the order in which their names appear on the  designating  petition  and
the group rotated alphabetically in relation to other groups or individ-
ual  candidates  according  to  the  surname  of the first person on the
designating petition of such group.  Groups of candidates  for  delegate
and  alternate  delegate,  and  groups of candidates for male and female

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

                                                           LBD00689-01-3

A. 2216                             2

delegate and male and female alternate delegate to the  same  convention
designated on the same petition shall be rotated together alphabetically
in  relation  to  other groups or individual candidates according to the
surname  of  the first person listed on such designating petition in the
group of candidates for whichever of such delegate or alternate delegate
positions will appear first on the voting machine. If  the  rules  of  a
party  committee provide for equal representation of the sexes among the
members of a state committee   elected from each unit of representation,
elections for male and female members of such a committee from a  single
unit of representation shall be conducted as elections for two different
party  positions].  Notwithstanding the provisions of this paragraph, if
the board of elections has assigned numbers to  the  candidates  for  an
office  [or  position]  because of identical or similar names among such
candidates, the names of such candidates shall be placed under the title
of such office [or position] in the order of such numbers in such  first
or  lowest  numbered  district,  and  the  names shall not be rotated by
election district. Such names shall appear in  the  identical  order  on
each ballot in each election district.
  [County  committee candidates or groups of candidates shall be printed
within the first election district of each  assembly  district  or  part
thereof,  according  to  the priority of filing of designating petitions
and they shall then be rotated  by  election  district  by  placing  the
candidate  or group of candidates designated in the same petition as the
candidate or group of candidates which was printed first in an  election
district  at  the  bottom  of  the order in the next succeeding election
district in which a candidate or group of candidates designated in  such
petition appears on the ballot.
  In  cases where a name is added to or removed from the ballot by court
order too late to make  a  complete  adjustment  to  these  requirements
feasible,  the name may be added at the bottom of the list of candidates
in all election districts, or removed from the ballot  in  all  election
districts  without changing the previously arranged order of other names
and without invalidating the election.] Any  inadvertent  error  in  the
order  of names discovered too late to correct the order of the names on
the ballots concerned shall not invalidate an election.
  Except where a contest or candidate is  removed  from  the  ballot  by
court  order  too  late  to make complete compliance with this paragraph
feasible, the title of each public office [or party  position]  and  the
names  of  the candidates for such office [or position] appearing on any
[voting machine] BALLOT used for primary elections in the  city  of  New
York  shall  appear on such [machine] BALLOT immediately adjacent to one
another, either horizontally or vertically; and no  blank  spaces  shall
separate  the  names  of  candidates  actually running for an office [or
party position] on such [voting machine] BALLOT,  and  no  blank  spaces
shall  separate any two such offices [or positions] which appear on such
[voting machine] BALLOT in the same column or row.
  S 2. This act shall take effect immediately.