Senate Bill S5287

                            
 
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   5287
 
                        2019-2020 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                              April 23, 2019
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by Sen. CARLUCCI -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
   printed to be committed to the Committee on Elections
 
 AN ACT to amend the election law and the education law, in  relation  to
   providing public school districts the authority to decline or change a
   school building's designation as a polling location

   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 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, incidental to its
 use, shall be paid like the expense of other places of registration  and
 voting. If a board or body empowered to designate polling 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  designat-
 ing  such  building  determines  are  accessible  to physically disabled
 voters as provided in  subdivision  one-a  OF  THIS  SECTION;  PROVIDED,
 HOWEVER,  NOT  LATER  THAN  THIRTY  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. UPON  RECEIPT  OF  SUCH  REQUEST,  THE
 BOARD  OR  BODY EMPOWERED TO SO DESIGNATE SHALL CANCEL SUCH DESIGNATION.
 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, for such
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
              

                                                            LBD08884-01-9

 S. 5287                             2
 
 purposes the board or body which controls such building must make avail-
 able a room or rooms in such building which are suitable  for  registra-
 tion  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  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. Subdivision 1 of section 2002 of the education law, as amended by
 section 5 of part C of chapter 58 of the laws of  1998,  is  amended  to
 read as follows:
   1.  The  annual  meeting and election of each school district shall be
 held on the third Tuesday of May in each year,  provided,  however  that
 such  annual meeting and election shall be held on the second Tuesday in
 May if the commissioner at the request of a local school board certifies
 no later than March first that such election would conflict  with  reli-
 gious  observances.  Unless  the  hour and place thereof shall have been
 fixed by a vote of a previous district meeting, the same shall  be  held
 in the schoolhouse at seven-thirty o'clock in the evening in the case of
 a  school  district  that  is  not  divided  into election districts and
 conducts its election or vote by recording the ayes or noes of the qual-
 ified voters attending, or, in the case of all other  districts,  during
 at  least six consecutive hours after six a.m., two of which hours shall
 be after six p.m. as determined by resolution of the trustees  or  board
 of education, provided, however, that the trustees or board of education
 of any school district that conducted its annual meeting at seven-thirty
 p.m.  in  nineteen  hundred ninety-seven may conduct its annual election
 and budget vote at such time in  nineteen  hundred  ninety-eight.  If  a
 district  possesses  more  than one schoolhouse, it shall be held in the
 one usually employed for that purpose, unless the trustees or  board  of
 education  designate  another,  provided  that if the school district is
 divided into election districts such annual meeting and  election  shall
 be  held  at such place in each election district as the board of educa-
 tion may designate. If BY RESOLUTION OF THE TRUSTEES OR BOARD OF  EDUCA-
 TION the district [possesses no schoolhouse, or if the schoolhouse shall
 not  be accessible or adequate, then the] ELECTS TO DESIGNATE A PUBLICLY
 ACCESSIBLE LOCATION WITHIN DISTRICT BOUNDARIES  THAT  IS  NOT  A  SCHOOL
 BUILDING  FOR  PURPOSES  OF  CONDUCTING THE ANNUAL MEETING AND ELECTION,
 SUCH annual meeting and election shall be held  at  such  place  as  the
 trustees  or  board  of  education, or the clerk, shall designate in the
 notice.
   § 3. Section 2604 of the education law, as amended by chapter  741  of
 the laws of 1954, is amended to read as follows:
   §  2604.  Division  of  city  school  district  into  school  election
 districts; elections held in schoolhouses.   The board of  education  of
 each  city  school  district  shall  adopt a resolution on or before the
 first day of April, preceding the  first  annual  school  election  held
 hereunder,  dividing  the  city  school  district  into  school election
 districts.  The city school district shall be so divided that if circum-

 S. 5287                             3
 
 stances will permit, school election districts will be coterminous  with
 one  or more general election districts, and that, if practicable, there
 shall be  a  schoolhouse  in  each  election  district.    The  election
 districts  thus  formed  shall  continue  in existence until modified by
 resolution of the board of education.  Such resolution shall  accurately
 describe  the  boundaries  of such election districts by streets, alleys
 and highways, when practicable.  School elections shall be held in  such
 school  election  districts  so  far  as  may  be possible in the public
 schoolhouses therein[. If there is no public  schoolhouse  in  a  school
 election  district,];  PROVIDED, HOWEVER, the board of education [shall]
 MAY by resolution designate [the place] A PUBLICLY  ACCESSIBLE  ALTERNA-
 TIVE  LOCATION  where  the  election  in  such  district  shall be held.
 Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section, the  board  of
 education  of  any city school district of a city of less than ten thou-
 sand inhabitants may, by resolution, designate the  entire  city  school
 district as a single school district.
   § 4. This act shall take effect immediately.