BILL NUMBER:  S570

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to amend the election law, in relation to
change of enrollment

 PURPOSE :  Under current law, when a registered voter seeks to change
his/her party enrollment to a different party, enroll in a party (when
not previously enrolled in any party), or to end his/her enrollment in
a party, the effective change of that enrollment is deferred until the
first Tuesday following the general election. As a result, voters
wishing to make such changes of enrollment may have to wait as long as
thirteen months to see their changes of enrollment take effect.  Under
this bill, changes of enrollment would take effect twenty-five (25)
days after such changes were applied for. This new timeframe would
coincide with the deadlines for voter registration thus simplifying
the process for both voters and county boards of elections.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

Section 1 amends Subdivision 3 of Section 5-304 of the election law to
make changes of enrollment effective twenty-five (25) days after they
are applied for. Section 2 sets the effective date.

 JUSTIFICATION :  Of paramount importance in a democratic society is
not just to be able to vote for the candidate of one's choice but also
to be able to select the candidates who appear on the ballot. In fact,
              

in many instances this selection is more significant than the general
election itself. In New York, voters get to partake in this selection
process by means of primary elections. Unfortunately, many voters
discover that they are unable to vote in the party primary of their
choice because they are not enrolled in the party whose primary they
wish to vote in.

Voters who seek changes of enrollment discover that such changes would
not be effective until after the November elections, not in time to be
able to vote in the Presidential Primaries themselves. For example,
voters who wished to change their party enrollment for any of the 2012
elections (including the April Presidential primary, the September
primary or the November election) would have had to apply for a change
of enrollment in early October of 2011, six months before the
Presidential primary. Voters who wished to change their party
enrollment so that they could vote in the 2012 September primary would
have also had to apply for a change of enrollment in early October of
2011, eleven months before the September primary.

This bill would ensure that voters are fully able to partake in all
steps of the electoral process; including the candidate selection
process.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :  2013-2014: S213/A2017 - REFERRED TO
ELECTIONS/referred to election law 2011-2012: S56/A5928 - COMMITTEE
DISCHARGED AND COMMITTED TO RULES/referred to election law 2009-2010:
S4543/A408 - REFERRED TO ELECTIONS/referred to election law 2007-2008:
A8035 - referred to election law 2005-2006: A1829 (Grannis) - referred
to election law 2003-2004: A711 (Grannis) - referred to election law
2001-2002: A7041-A (Grannis)- referred to election law

 FISCAL IMPACT ON THE STATE : None.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :  This act shall take effect sixty days after it
shall have become a law.