What's happening
This bill allows New York voters to transfer their voter registration and enrollment between adjacent counties or cities more easily.
Why it matters
Simplifies moving and voting. By allowing voter registration and party enrollment to transfer between neighboring counties or cities, this bill reduces bureaucratic hurdles for people who move locally, helping ensure they can vote without re-registering from scratch.
Reduces disenfranchisement risk. Voters who change addresses between adjacent jurisdictions are less likely to lose the ability to vote due to paperwork delays or confusion, potentially increasing turnout and preventing accidental disenfranchisement.
Streamlines government operations. The bill requires the State Board of Elections to set clear procedures for cross-county/city transfers, which could lead to more uniform, efficient processing and less confusion for both voters and election officials.
Updates affidavit ballot process. The legislation clarifies that voters who moved between adjacent counties or cities can use affidavit ballots, ensuring their votes are counted even if registration records haven’t yet caught up with their new address.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Easier Voter Registration Transfers
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to election law
- Referred to election law
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
1677
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 16, 2019
Introduced by M. of A. ABINANTI -- read once and referred to the Committee on Election Law
AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to voter registration transfers
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Subdivisions 1, 4, and 8 of section 5-208 of the election law, subdivisions 1 and 8 as amended by chapter 200 of the laws of 1996, subdivision 4 as added by chapter 659 of the laws of 1994, are amended and a new subdivision 9 is added to read as follows:
1. The board of elections shall transfer the registration and enrollment of any voter appearing on a statewide voter list pursuant to subdivision one of section 5-614 of this article for whom it receives a notice of change of address to another address in the same county or city or adjacent county or city, or for any voter who casts a ballot in an affidavit ballot envelope which sets forth such a new address. Such notices shall include, but not be limited to, notices received from any state agency which conducts a voter registration program pursuant to the provisions of sections 5-211 and 5-212 of this title, that the voter has notified such agency of a change of address in the same city or county unless the voter has indicated that such change of address is not for voter registration purposes, notices of change of address from the United States Postal Service through the National Change of Address System, any notices of a forwarding address on mail sent to a voter by the board of elections and returned by the postal service, national or state voter registration forms, confirmation mailing response cards, United States Postal Service notices to correspondents of change of address, applications for registration from persons already registered in such county or city or adjacent county or city, or any other notices to correspondents sent to the board of elections by such voters.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05252-01-9
A. 1677 2
4. If such application for registration from a voter already registered in such county or city or adjacent county or city also reflects a change of enrollment, the board of elections shall treat such application as an application for change of enrollment pursuant to section 5-304 of this article.
8. If the board of elections receives notice of a change of address within such city or county or adjacent city or county from, or with respect to, a person who it determines is not registered in such county or city, it shall forthwith send such person a notice to that effect in a form approved by the state board of elections at the new address set forth in such notice of change of address, together with a voter registration form.
9. The state board of elections shall promulgate regulations as to the procedures for transferring a voter from one county or city to another.
§ 2. Subparagraph (ii) of paragraph (e) of subdivision 3 of section 8-302 of the election law, as amended by chapter 164 of the laws of 2010, is amended to read as follows:
(ii) He or she may swear to and subscribe an affidavit stating that he or she has duly registered to vote, the address in such election district from which he or she registered, that he or she remains a duly qualified voter in such election district, that his or her registration poll record appears to be lost or misplaced or that his or her name and/or his or her signature was omitted from the computer generated registration list or that he or she has moved within the county or city or adjacent county or city since he or she last registered, the address from which he or she was previously registered and the address at which he or she currently resides, and at a primary election, the party in which he or she is enrolled. The inspectors of election shall offer such an affidavit to each such voter whose residence address is in such election district. Each such affidavit shall be in a form prescribed by the state board of elections, shall be printed on an envelope of the size and quality used for an absentee ballot envelope, and shall contain an acknowledgment that the affiant understands that any false statement made therein is perjury punishable according to law. Such form prescribed by the state board of elections shall request information required to register such voter should the county board determine that such voter is not registered and shall constitute an application to register to vote. The voter's name and the entries required shall then be entered without delay and without further inquiry in the fourth section of the challenge report or in the place provided at the end of the computer generated registration list, with the notation that the voter has executed the affidavit hereinabove prescribed, or, if such person's name appears on the computer generated registration list, the board of elections may provide a place to make such entry next to his or her name on such list. The voter shall then, without further inquiry, be permitted to vote an affidavit ballot provided for by this chapter. Such ballot shall thereupon be placed in the envelope containing his or her affidavit, and the envelope sealed and returned to the board of elections in the manner provided by this chapter for protested official ballots, including a statement of the number of such ballots.
§ 3. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall have become a law.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
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