NY State Senate Bill 2019-S7597

Senate Bill S7597

2019-2020 Legislative Session

Requires counties outside of a city with a population of one million or more to allow voters to utilize any early voting site in the county

download bill text pdf

Archive: Last Bill Status - In Senate Committee Elections Committee

Introduced
- In Committee Assembly
- In Committee Senate
- On Floor Calendar Assembly
- On Floor Calendar Senate
- Passed Assembly
- Passed Senate
Delivered to Governor
Signed By Governor

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Actions

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	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Jan 29, 2020	referred to elections

2019-S7597 (ACTIVE) - Details

Current Committee:: Senate Elections
Law Section:: Election Law
Laws Affected:: Amd §8-600, El L

2019-S7597 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Requires counties outside of a city with a population of one million or more to allow voters to utilize any early voting site in the county.

2019-S7597 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S7597

SPONSOR: SKOUFIS
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the election law, in relation to requiring counties
outside of a city with a population of one million or more to allow
voters to utilize any early voting site in the county

 
PURPOSE:

To make it easier for New Yorkers to vote early by requiring that coun-
ties allow any voter within the county to vote at any early voting site
within a county.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1: Amends section 8-600 of the Election Law to require every
early voting polling place to allow any registered voter within the same
county to cast an early vote at that polling site. For cities of more
than a million people, the bill maintains the existing allowance that if

it is "impractical" to allow voters to vote at any polling place, the
county board of elections may assign election districts to a particular
early voting poll site.

Section 2: Effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

New York's early voting law made it much easier for voters in our state
to exercise their right to vote by allowing nine days of early voting
before primary and general elections. As the new law was implemented in
2019, some counties required voters to vote at a specific assigned early
voting site while other counties allowed voters to vote at any early
voting site within the county. Giving voters more options of where to
cast their ballot is preferable (for instance, some people may find it
convenient to vote at an early voting site near their place of work),
and will lead to higher rates of voter participation.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None to the state.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

2019-S7597 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                            
 
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   7597
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                             January 29, 2020
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  Sen. SKOUFIS -- 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  counties
   outside  of  a  city with a population of one million or more to allow
   voters to utilize any early voting site in the county
 
   THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section  1.  Subdivision  3  of  section 8-600 of the election law, as
 added by chapter 6 of the laws of 2019, is amended to read as follows:
   3. Any voter may vote at any polling place  for  early  voting  estab-
 lished  pursuant  to subdivision two of this section in the county where
 such voter is registered to vote; provided, however, if IN A CITY WITH A
 POPULATION OF ONE MILLION OR MORE it  is  impractical  to  provide  each
 polling  place  for early voting all of the election district ballots or
 if early voting at any such polling place makes ensuring that  no  voter
 has  not  previously  voted  early  during  such  election, the board of
 elections OF SUCH CITY may assign election  districts  to  a  particular
 early voting poll site. All voters in each county shall have one or more
 polling  places  at which they are eligible to vote throughout the early
 voting period on a substantially equal basis. If the board of  elections
 IN  A  CITY  WITH  A POPULATION OF ONE MILLION OR MORE does not agree by
 majority vote to plan to assign election districts to early voting  poll
 sites,  all  voters  in the county must be able to vote at any poll site
 for early voting in the county.
   § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
 
 
 
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD14965-03-0

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