N.Y.
Education Law Section 2606
Registration of voters
1.
The board of education except in those city school districts which have adopted a resolution pursuant to section twenty-five hundred thirty-one of this chapter, shall, on or before the fifteenth day of February in each year, appoint a board of registration for a term of one year, consisting of as many members as the board shall deem necessary, not more than half of whom shall belong to the same political party, and shall designate a place within the city school district where such board of registration shall attend for the purpose of preparing a register for each school election district. Each member of the board of registration shall be entitled to compensation at a rate not to exceed that paid at general elections in the city.2.
The board of registration of such city school district shall meet at the designated place for the purpose of preparing the registers for such election on such day or days as shall be fixed by the board of education, the last day of which, however, shall not be less than two weeks preceding each school election, at such hours as the board of education shall by resolution designate at least twenty days before the first registration day, which hours shall include at least four hours between seven o’clock in the morning and eight o’clock in the evening. The registers shall, so far as practicable, be in the same form as the register of voters in an election district for a general election in a city or village having five thousand inhabitants or more, under the election law. Such registers shall be arranged alphabetically by the first letter of surnames, and the place of residence by street and number, or by a description accurately locating such place of residence, of each person entered in such registers shall be given. Notwithstanding any other general or special law, the board of registration shall have the power to require the board of elections or other authority having lawful custody of the register or registers used at the general elections last preceding such school election to turn over such register or registers to such board of registration on or before March first of each year for use on the date or dates of such registration and election, for the purpose of preparing the school district registers therefrom. Such board of elections or other authority may, however, elect to furnish, in place of the original registers either a duplicate of the central file registration records, or a list of registered voters, certified to be a complete and accurate copy of the names and addresses of all persons entered in such register for the last preceding general election as well as the names of persons who have registered with such board of elections or other authority up to five days before the date of furnishing such list. On the day following the day of the election, the general election register or registers shall be returned to the authority from whom such register or registers were secured. In addition, the board of registration shall include in each school district register, the names and addresses of persons who registered for any intervening school district election, but who were not registered for the preceding general election. The board of registration shall, for each election of the school district, add to such registers the names of the qualified voters of the school district who shall present themselves personally for registration. Only those qualified voters who are not registered under permanent personal registration on or before the last registration day found on the original or duplicate registers or records or list furnished by the board of elections and have not voted at an intervening school district election, shall be required to present themselves personally for registration.3.
All the provisions of the election law in relation to the registration of voters in a city or village having five thousand inhabitants or more, shall so far as practicable and consistent with the provisions of this article, apply to the registration provided for in this section.4.
The district clerk shall furnish the necessary registration material to the board of registration at the expense of the school district.5.
The board of education shall publish a notice of registration at least once in each of the two weeks preceding the first registration day designated, in a newspaper having a general circulation in the city school district; or, at least two weeks preceding the first registration day designated, the board shall post a printed copy of the notice conspicuously in twenty places frequented by the public within such district. Such notice shall state that at a place and hour or hours at which the board of registration shall meet to prepare the school election district registers, any person who has not currently registered under permanent personal registration by the last date found on such original or duplicate registers, or records, or list furnished by the board of elections, and has not voted at an intervening election, must, in order to be entitled to vote, present himself personally for registration. Such notice shall state the last date found on such original or duplicate registers or records or list furnished by the board of elections.6.
The registers prepared as provided in this section shall, immediately upon completion and not less than two weeks prior to the time set for the school election at which they are to be used, be filed in the office of the clerk of the board of education, and thereafter shall at all reasonable times be open to inspection by any qualified voter of the school district. Upon the filing of such registers, the board of education shall publish at least once in each of the two weeks preceding such election in a newspaper having a general circulation in the city school district, or shall post conspicuously in twenty places frequented by the public within the school district, a notice stating that the school election district registers have been filed and noting the place at which they are on file and the hours during which they will be open for inspection in each day up to the day set for the election.7.
Any person who is duly qualified to vote and who registered for the preceding general election or any intervening school district election, and whose name was by mistake, error or neglect of the board of registration, omitted from the school election district register, may at any time either before or during election day request the clerk of the board of education to place the name of such voter on the appropriate register. If the clerk of the board of education shall find that such an omission has been made, he shall place the voter’s name on the register. In the event of the failure, refusal or neglect of the clerk of the board of education to comply with such request, a court, justice or judge in a proceeding instituted by such voter may grant an order compelling such clerk forthwith to enter the voter’s name on the register.8.
A qualified voter may, upon the examination of the registers, file a challenge of the qualifications as a voter of any person whose name appears on such registers. Such challenges shall be written, shall be under oath and shall be on blanks to be furnished by the board of education.9.
Challenges shall be received and preserved by the clerk of the board or other person designated by the board, and upon receipt thereof, the clerk shall file such challenge or copy thereof with the register, and shall place the words “to be challenged on the day of election” opposite the name of such person on the register.10.
The clerk of the board of education shall cause a copy of the appropriate register of such school district to be delivered on the day of the election before the opening of the polls to the inspectors of election at each voting place within the district at the place or places where the election is to be held.11.
School elections in any school district subject to the provisions of this article, shall hereafter be conducted in the manner provided in this article, and no person shall be entitled to vote whose name does not appear upon the register of the school election district in which he claims to be entitled to vote. Any person who has moved from one school election district to another, in the same city school district and who has not registered in the new school election district, and who is still registered in the district from which he moved, may vote in the election district in which he is registered. Such person must at the time of voting advise the election inspectors of his new address and they shall advise the board of registration to correct such registration.12.
The provisions of this section shall not apply with respect to any person registered to vote pursuant to the provisions of section three hundred fifty-two of the election law.
Source:
Section 2606 — Registration of voters, https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/EDN/2606 (updated Sep. 22, 2014; accessed Oct. 26, 2024).
