S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   4208
 
                        2017-2018 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                             February 6, 2017
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  Sen.  DILAN  -- 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 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
 delegate  and  male and female alternate delegate to the same convention

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

                                                            LBD09272-01-7

 S. 4208                             2

 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.
   § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.