Assembly Bill A11356

                            
 
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   11356
 
                           I N  A S S E M B L Y
 
                            September 19, 2018
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  COMMITTEE ON RULES -- (at request of M. of A. D'Urso) --
   read once and referred to the Committee on Election Law
 
 AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to requests for  cancella-
   tion of the designation of a polling place
 
   THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

   Section 1. Subdivision 3 of section 4-104  of  the  election  law,  as
 amended  by  chapter  694  of  the  laws  of 1989, is amended to read as
 follows:
   3. (A) A building exempt from taxation shall be used whenever possible
 as a polling place if it  is  situated  in  the  same  or  a  contiguous
 election  district,  and may contain as many distinctly separate polling
 places as public convenience may require. The  expense,  if  any,  inci-
 dental  to  its  use,  shall be paid like the expense of other places of
 registration and voting. If a board or body empowered to designate poll-
 ing places chooses a public school building for such purpose, the  board
 or  agency  which  controls  such building must make available a room or
 rooms in such building which are suitable for  registration  and  voting
 and  which  are  as  close  as possible to a convenient entrance to such
 building and must make available any such room or rooms which the  board
 or  body  designating  such  building determines are accessible to phys-
 ically disabled voters as provided in subdivision one-a OF THIS SECTION.
 NOT LATER THAN TWENTY DAYS  AFTER  A  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  BUILDING  RECEIVES
 NOTICE  OF  ITS  DESIGNATION  AS  A  POLLING  PLACE, THE BOARD OR AGENCY
 CONTROLLING SUCH BUILDING MAY FILE A WRITTEN REQUEST FOR A  CANCELLATION
 OF  SUCH DESIGNATION, PROVIDED THAT SUCH BOARD OR AGENCY MAKES A SHOWING
 THAT SUCH BUILDING DOES NOT POSSESS THE PROPER STRUCTURE  OR  PROCEDURES
 TO  KEEP  THE  PUBLIC  SAFE  IN  THE EVENT OF A SECURITY CONCERN ARISING
 DURING THE USE OF SUCH BUILDING AS A POLLING SITE.  THE  BOARD  OR  BODY
 EMPOWERED  TO  SO DESIGNATE SHALL, WITHIN TWENTY DAYS AFTER SUCH REQUEST
 IS FILED, CANCEL THE DESIGNATION OF SUCH POLLING SITE.
   (B) Notwithstanding the provisions of any general,  special  or  local
 law,  if a board or body empowered to designate polling places chooses a
 publicly owned or leased building, other than a public school  building,
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
              

                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD15835-03-8

 A. 11356                            2
 
 for  such  purposes  the board or body which controls such building must
 make available a room or rooms in such building which are  suitable  for
 registration  and voting and which are as close as possible to a conven-
 ient entrance to such building, and must make available any such room or
 rooms  which  the board or body designating such building determines are
 accessible to physically disabled voters unless, not later  than  thirty
 days  after  notice  of its designation as a polling place, the board or
 body controlling such building, files a written request for a  cancella-
 tion  of  such designation with the board or body empowered to designate
 polling places on such form as shall be provided by the  board  or  body
 making  such  designation.  The  board or body empowered to so designate
 shall, within twenty days after such request is filed, determine whether
 the use of such building as a polling place would unreasonably interfere
 with the usual activities conducted  in  such  building  and  upon  such
 determination, may cancel such designation.
   §  2.  This  act  shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall
 have become a law.