Move Local Elections to Even Years

Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 6-202 of the election law, as added by chapter 359 of the laws of 1989, is amended to read as follows:

1. Party nominations of candidates for village offices in any county shall be made at a party caucus or at a primary election, as the rules of the county committee, heretofore or hereafter adopted consistent with the provisions of this chapter shall provide. If the rules of the county committee of any political party provide that party nominations for village offices of that party in any or all villages in the county shall be made at a village primary election, such primary election shall be held [forty-nine days prior to the date of the village election] the first Tuesday after the second Monday in September before every general election in an even-numbered year unless otherwise changed by an act of the legislature. In the event there is no village committee with a chairman, the chairman of the county committee, or such other person or body as the rules of such committee may provide, shall designate an enrolled member of the party who is a qualified voter of the village as the village election chairman. The chairman of the county committee of each party in which nominations in any village are made at a primary election shall file with the board of elections, at least one week before the first day to file designating petitions for such primary elections, a list of the name and address of the chairman of the village committee or the village election chairman in each such village. Such village chairman shall have general party responsibility for the conduct

EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets

[ ] is old law to be omitted.

LBD01805-01-7

S. 382 2

of the village caucus or primary election. Such nominations shall be made not more than fifty-six, nor less than forty-nine days prior to the date of the village election.

§ 2. Paragraphs a and b of subdivision 1 of section 15-104 of the election law, paragraph a as amended by chapter 248 of the laws of 1983 and paragraph b as amended by chapter 565 of the laws of 1998, are amended to read as follows:

a. The general village election shall be held on the [third Tuesday in March except in any village which presently elects, or hereafter adopts a proposition to elect, its officers on a date other than the third Tuesday in March] Tuesday next succeeding the first Monday in November in an even-numbered year.

[b. In any village in which the general village election, or a special village election for officers pursuant to this chapter, is scheduled to be held on the third Tuesday of March, for any year in which the seventeenth day of March shall fall on such Tuesday, the board of trustees of such village shall provide, by the resolution prescribed by paragraph b of subdivision three of this section, that such election shall be held on the eighteenth day of March. Any provision of a resolution adopted pursuant to this subdivision shall not otherwise alter the political calendar for any such election, which shall continue to be computed from the third Tuesday of March. Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision five of this section, any provision of a resolution adopted pursuant to this subdivision shall be effective only if such provision is specifically published as provided by this section.]

§ 3. Section 6-200 of the election law is REPEALED.

§ 4. Section 80 of the town law, is amended to read as follows:

§ 80. Biennial town elections. [Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, a] A biennial town election for the election of town officers and for the consideration of such questions as may be proposed by the town board or the duly qualified electors, pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, shall be held on the Tuesday next succeeding the first Monday in November of every [odd-numbered] even-numbered year. All other town elections are special elections. A town election or special town election held pursuant to this chapter, shall be construed as a substitute, for a town meeting or a special town meeting heretofore provided to be held by law, and a reference in any law to a town meeting or special town meeting shall be construed as referring to a town election or special town election.

§ 5. Notwithstanding any inconsistent provision of law or of any other general, special or local law, all elections of any position of a county elected official, town elected official, village elected official or elected official of the city of New York shall occur on the Tuesday next succeeding the first Monday in November. All such elections shall occur in an even-numbered year.

§ 6. This act shall take effect at the first general election in an even-numbered year next succeeding the date on which it shall have become a law; provided, however, that effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of this act on its effective date are authorized and directed to be made and completed on or before such effective date.