S423-2013 Actions

• Jan 9, 2013: REFERRED TO ELECTIONS

S423-2013 Memo

BILL NUMBER:S423

TITLE OF BILL:
An act
to amend the election law, in relation to requiring ballot rotation

PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
This bill makes a technical clarification to the election law to make
it clear that ballot rotation of candidates' names is still required
by the election law in cities with a population of one million or
more for primary elections.

SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section one amends subdivision 6 of section 7-116 of the election law
to remove references to voting machines. This change also removes the
requirement of ballot rotation for party position for county
committee in primary elections.

Section two provides that this act shall take effect immediately.

JUSTIFICATION:
The rotation of candidates' names in primary elections within New York
City has been a time honored practice embodied in state law going
back prior to 1950. The simple idea behind the practice being that
every candidate for election in a primary should have equal access to
the top ballot position for that respective race.

Recently, the NYC Board of Elections has ended this practice, in
effect arguing that the current law, as written does not apply to the
new ballots or electronic scanners. As a result the city BOE has
discontinued this time honored practice. This legislation would make
a technical correction to make clear ballot rotation is still
required by removing outdated references to the word "voting machine"
while at the same time changing the practice so that it only applies
to elections to office and state committee and no longer to party
positions for county committee.

PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2012: S.6874/A.9866

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
None to the state.

EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.

S423-2013 Text

                      S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
  ________________________________________________________________________

                                     423

                         2013-2014 Regular Sessions

                              I N  SENATE

                                 (PREFILED)

                               January 9, 2013
                                 ___________

  Introduced  by  Sen.  DILAN  -- 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 ballot  rota-
    tion

    THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
  BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:


    Section 1. Subdivision 6 of section 7-116 of  the  election  law,  the
  second  undesignated  paragraph as amended by chapter 121 of the laws of
  1997, is amended to read as follows:

    6. In the city of New York, the ballot [on  the  voting  machine]  for
  primary elections shall conform to the following additional provisions:

    The  names  of  the candidates designated for [such] public office [or
  party position] in the primary of a party  shall  be  placed  under  the
  title  of  the  office  or  position  in the alphabetical order of their
  surnames, in the first or lowest numbered assembly district and election
  district of any political unit or  subdivision  within  a  county.    If
  candidates'  surnames  are  identical,  their  given or first name shall
  determine their order.    Thereafter  the  names  shall  be  rotated  by
  election  districts  by  transposing  the  first  named candidate to the
  bottom of the order at each succeeding election district, so  that  each
  name  shall  appear first and in each other position in an equal number,
  as nearly as possible, of the election districts [and  except,  further,
  that  where  two  or more candidates are to be elected to the same party
  position, the names of candidates for such a position  which  appear  on
  the same designating petition shall be grouped together on the ballot in
  the  order  in  which their names appear on the designating petition and
  the group rotated alphabetically in relation to other groups or individ-
  ual candidates according to the surname  of  the  first  person  on  the
  designating  petition  of such group.  Groups of candidates for delegate
  and alternate delegate, and groups of candidates  for  male  and  female

   EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                        [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                             LBD00689-01-3

 S. 423                              2

  delegate  and  male and female alternate delegate to the same convention
  designated on the same petition shall be rotated together alphabetically
  in relation to other groups or individual candidates  according  to  the
  surname  of  the first person listed on such designating petition in the
  group of candidates for whichever of such delegate or alternate delegate
  positions will appear first on the voting machine. If  the  rules  of  a
  party  committee provide for equal representation of the sexes among the
  members of a state committee   elected from each unit of representation,
  elections for male and female members of such a committee from a  single
  unit of representation shall be conducted as elections for two different
  party  positions].  Notwithstanding the provisions of this paragraph, if
  the board of elections has assigned numbers to  the  candidates  for  an
  office  [or  position]  because of identical or similar names among such
  candidates, the names of such candidates shall be placed under the title
  of such office [or position] in the order of such numbers in such  first
  or  lowest  numbered  district,  and  the  names shall not be rotated by
  election district. Such names shall appear in  the  identical  order  on
  each ballot in each election district.
    [County  committee candidates or groups of candidates shall be printed
  within the first election district of each  assembly  district  or  part
  thereof,  according  to  the priority of filing of designating petitions
  and they shall then be rotated  by  election  district  by  placing  the
  candidate  or group of candidates designated in the same petition as the
  candidate or group of candidates which was printed first in an  election
  district  at  the  bottom  of  the order in the next succeeding election
  district in which a candidate or group of candidates designated in  such
  petition appears on the ballot.
    In  cases where a name is added to or removed from the ballot by court
  order too late to make  a  complete  adjustment  to  these  requirements
  feasible,  the name may be added at the bottom of the list of candidates
  in all election districts, or removed from the ballot  in  all  election
  districts  without changing the previously arranged order of other names
  and without invalidating the election.] Any  inadvertent  error  in  the
  order  of names discovered too late to correct the order of the names on
  the ballots concerned shall not invalidate an election.
    Except where a contest or candidate is  removed  from  the  ballot  by
  court  order  too  late  to make complete compliance with this paragraph
  feasible, the title of each public office [or party  position]  and  the
  names  of  the candidates for such office [or position] appearing on any
  [voting machine] BALLOT used for primary elections in the  city  of  New
  York  shall  appear on such [machine] BALLOT immediately adjacent to one
  another, either horizontally or vertically; and no  blank  spaces  shall
  separate  the  names  of  candidates  actually running for an office [or
  party position] on such [voting machine] BALLOT,  and  no  blank  spaces
  shall  separate any two such offices [or positions] which appear on such
  [voting machine] BALLOT in the same column or row.
    S 2. This act shall take effect immediately.