BILL NUMBER:S5547

TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the town law, in relation to designating a board of
registration for special town elections

PURPOSE:

To ease the financial burden on towns that offer personal registration
of voters in special elections by allowing one or more board/s of regis-
tration to be convened for the entire town. This solution offers an
alternative to current law, which mandates the designation of boards of
registration for each of the town's individual polling sites.

Each board of registration must have two to four members who are all
required to be compensated. Thus, towns will stand to save thousands of
dollars if designating one board of registration rather than many.

This mandated expense can effectively make it prohibitive for towns to
offer absentee ballots and multiple polling places. In order to avoid
this mandate, many towns instead choose to not offer personal registra-
tion, which in turn means absentee ballots are not offered - discourag-
ing voter participation in special town elections.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
              

Section one amends Town Law, Section 84 subdivision 3 to allow one or
more boards of registration to be convened for the entire town in the
case of town special elections in which personal voter registration is
offered. Current law mandates the designation of boards of registration
for each of the town's individual polling sites in such elections. Towns
that desire to continue the current practice will be allowed to do so.

Section two is the effective date.

JUSTIFICATION:

Towns hold special elections throughout the calendar year which require
voter approval for various things, such as the sale of town
property(under Town Law, § 64 (2)) or the withdrawal of funds from a
capital reserve fund (under General Municipal Law, § 6-c). Towns are
also often required to hold special elections in response to a citizen-
initiated petition, as was the case in 2014 in both the towns of North
Castle and Ramapo, among others. Currently, in accordance with article 6
of the town law as well as the state election law, towns must offer
personal registration for purposes of voting if they want to allow
absentee ballots in special town elections.

However, the procedure to offer personal voter registration for special
town elections can be prohibitively expensive and administratively
cumbersome. That procedure requires that the town board designate a

board of registration for each individual polling site, which must have
between two and four members who are all required to be compensated by
law (Town Law, § 84(3)).

To ease the financial burden on towns that offer absentee ballots in
special elections, this legislation allows one or more boards of regis-
tration to be convened for the entire town, offering an alternative to
current law, which mandates the designation of boards of registration
for each of the town's polling sites.

Election inspectors are typically paid $200 per day. If a town has 15
polling sites for a special election, with 3 board members at each site,
the State of New York currently mandates that taxpayers are responsible
for this expense in this case, $9,000 per day. Then there are additional
expenses such as mailing notices, rental fees and insurance fees that
add to the cost of having a board of registration for multiple polling
sites. In contrast, this legislation would allow the town to instead
designate just one board of registration at a cost of $600 per day,
saving the town $8,400 per day in state mandates.

This expense of convening a board of registration for each individual
polling site results in towns offering fewer polling sites, or altogeth-
er foregoing personal registration - and therefore absentee ballots - in
their special election. Allowing towns to instead designate just one
board or more boards of registration - as this legislation proposes will
save taxpayers money by offering an alternative loan unnecessary state
mandate. Towns should have the opportunity to organize special elections
according to their own needs.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS TO THE STATE:

None.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS TO LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:

Allows towns to save thousands of dollars each time they have to conduct
a special election.

IMPACT ON REGULATION OF BUSINESSES AND INDIVIDUALS:

None

EFFECT ON FINES, TERMS OF IMPRISONMENT OR OTHER SANCTIONS:

None

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill

EFFECTIVE DATE:

This act shall take effect immediately.