ber upon the stub of the ballot or set of ballots voted by him. The inspector shall forthwith upon detaching the stub from any official ballot deposit the same in the box provided for detached stubs. Derivation: Election Law, § 103, pt. of subd. 1. Cross-References. - Misdemeanors in relation to elections. Penal Law, § 764 (part 5, post). Misconduct of election officers. Penal Law, § 762 (part 5, post). Violation of Election Law by public officer. Penal Law, § 763 (part 5, post). Inspectors of election have equal power one with another. People v. Van Slyck, 4 Cow. 297. Inspectors of election are merely ministerial officers. People es rel. Sherwood v. State Board, (1891) 129 N. Y. 360; People v. Pease, (1863) 27 N. Y. 45; Goetcheus v. Matthewson, (1874) 61 N. Y. 420; People ex rel. Stapleton v. Bell, (1890) 119 N. Y. 175; People ex rel. Sherwood v. Board, 129 N. Y. 372; Matter of Hamilton, (1894) 80 Hun 511, 30 N. Y. Supp. 499; People v. Van Slyck, 4 Cow. 297; People ex rel. Borgia v. Doe, (1905) 109 App. Div. 670, 96 N. Y. Supp. 389. § 354. General duties of ballot clerks. Ballot clerks shall fold and deliver the ballots to voters. Ballots shall be delivered in numerical order beginning with number one. When the ballots are in sets they shall only be delivered in sets. If a ballot is found to be defective or mutilated before it is delivered to the voter, its stub and the stubs of all other ballots in the set shall immediately be detached and placed in the box for stubs, and all the ballots of that set shall immediately be marked "canceled" and placed in the box for spoiled and mutilated ballots. If a voter returns a ballot as defective, mutilated, defaced, or wrongly marked, he shall also return all the other ballots of the set, if any, and the ballot clerks shall likewise remove their stubs, placing all the stubs in the box for stubs and all the ballots of the set in the box for spoiled or mutilated ballots, first marking the ballots "canceled." In each case the voter shall receive another ballot, or set of ballots, unless not entitled thereto under section three hundred and fifty-eight. Upon each delivery of official ballots, the ballot clerks shall announce the voter's name and the number on the stub, and they shall make a similar announcement when any ballot is returned to them. The ballot clerks shall keep a record of all ballots deposited in the box for spoiled and mutilated ballots. Derivation: Election Law, § 103, subd. 2. Amended by L. 1913, ch. 821, in effect Dec. 17, 1913. § 355. General duties of poll clerks. 1. Poll clerks shall keep a record of the persons voting or offering to vote, and tally the votes during the canvass thereof. 2. Each poll clerk at each polling place for which official ballots are required to be provided shall have a poll-book for keeping the list of electors voting or offering to vote thereat at the elec tion. Such book shall have eight columns headed respectively: "Number of elector," "Names of electors," "Residence of electors," "Signature or statement number of elector," "Signatures compared by inspector," "Number on ballots delivered to electors," "Number on ballots voted," and "Remarks; " provided, however, that the columns for "Signature or statement number of elector and "Signatures compared by the inspector," when the poll-book is prepared for use in an election district wholly outside of a city or village having five thousand inhabitants or more, may in the discretion of the board or officer supplying such books be omitted therefrom. Previous to each delivery of an official ballot or set of official ballots by the ballot clerk to an elector, each poll clerk shall enter upon his poll-book in the appropriate column the number of the elector, in the successive order of the delivery of ballots to electors, the name of the elector in the alphabetical order of the first letter of his surname, his residence by street and number or if he has no street number, a brief description of the locality thereof. The column headed "Signature or statement number of elector," shall have printed above each horizontal line the words. "the foregoing statements are true," and any elector whose registration was required to be personal shall, previous to the receipt of an official ballot, sign his name by his own hand and without assistance, using an indelible pencil or ink, below the said words in the poll-book kept by the poll clerk who shall be designated by the chairman of the board of inspectors. No such signature shall be required of an elector whose registration was not required to be personal. After an elector, whose registration was required to be personal, shall have so signed, and before an official ballot shall be given to him, one of the inspectors other than the inspector who receives the ballots from the electors shall compare the sig nature made in the poll-book with the signature theretofore made by the elector in the registration book on registration day, and if said signature is the same, or sufficiently similar to the sig nature written on registration day, as to identify it as being writ ten by the same person who wrote the signature on registration day, said inspector shall thereupon certify that fact by writing his initials after such signature, in the column headed "Signatures compared by inspector." The inspector who shall so certify shall be chosen by lot by the board previous to the opening of the polls on election day, and if said inspector so chosen shall absent himself during the day, the board of inspectors shall fill his place by choosing by lot from the inspectors present another of the inspectors other than the inspector who receives the ballots from the electors. If on registration day, an elector whose registration was required to be personal had alleged his inability to so sign, then one of the poll clerks designated by the chairman of the board of inspectors shall read the same list of questions to the elector as were required to be read on registration days from a book to be provided for election day, and to be known as "identification statements for election day," and said poll clerk shall write the answers of the elector thereto. Each of these statements shall be numbered and a number corresponding to the number on the statement sheet shall be entered in the fourth column opposite the name of such elector answering the questions. The questions answered on registration day by the elector shall not be turned to or inspected until all the answers to said questions shall have been written down on election day by the poll clerk. Any person who shall prompt an elector in answering any questions provided in this subdivision shall be guilty of a felony. At the bottom of each such list of questions shall be printed the following statement: "I certify that 'I have read to the above named elector each of the foregoing questions and that I have duly recorded his answers as above to each of said questions," and said poll clerk who has made the above record shall sign his name to said certificate and date the same, and note the time of day of making such record. The comparison of the signature of an elector made on registration and election days, and a comparison of the answers made by an elector on registration and election days, shall be had in full view of the watchers, and the right to challenge electors shall exist until the ballot shall have been deposited in the ballot box. If the signature of the elector or the answers to the questions made by the elector do not correspond, then it shall be the privilege of the watchers and challengers to challenge and the duty of each inspector to challenge, unless some other authorized person shall challenge. Each poll clerk in every election district of the state shall enter upon his poll-book in the appropriate column the printed number upon the stub of the ballots delivered to each elector, and the number on the ballots voted by him. If the ballot or set of ballots delivered to any elector shall be returned by him to the ballot clerk, and he shall obtain a new ballot or set of ballots, the poll clerk shall write opposite his name on the poll-books, in the proper column, the printed number on the stub of such ballot or additional set of ballots. Each poll clerk shall make a memorandum upon his poll-book opposite the name of each person who shall have been challenged and taken either of the oaths prescribed upon such challenge, or who shall have received assistance in preparing his ballot and shall also enter upon the poll-book opposite the name of such person the names of the election officers or persons who render such assistance, and the cause or reason for such assistance by the elector assisted. As each elector offers his ballot or set of ballots which he intends to vote to the inspector, each poll clerk shall report to the inspector whether the number entered on the poll-book kept by him as the number on the ballot or set of ballots last delivered to such elector is the same as the number on the stub of the ballot or set of ballots so offered. As each elector votes, each poll clerk shall enter in the proper column on his poll-book the number on the detached stub of the ballots voted. Derivation: Subd. 1 is Election Law, § 103, subd. 3, as amended by L. 1908, ch. 521, § 2. Subd. 2 is Election Law, § 103, subd. 4, as added by L. 1908, ch. 521, § 3. Amended by L. 1910, ch. 428; L. 1911, ch. 649; L. 1913, ch. 821; L. 1916, ch. 537, in effect May 15, 1916. Cross-references.- See note to Election Law, § 353. Forms.- For poll list, see Forms (part 12, post). Requirement that elector sign his name in inspector's register at time of registration. The provision of the Election Law made applicable to cities only of a million or more inhabitants, requiring an elector to sign his name in the inspector's register at the time of registration, is a reasonable and constitutional enactment. Ahearn v. Elder, (1909) 195 N. Y. 493, 88 N. E. 1059, aff'g 130 App. Div. 900. The distinction between greater and smaller cities and country places with respect to methods and details for safeguarding elections is necessary and proper and violates no constitutional restriction. The constitutional provision forbidding the enactment of private or local bills for the conduct of elections is to be read in connection with that requiring the Legislature to make laws "for ascertaining by proper proofs the citizens who shall be entitled to the right of suffrage." State Const., art. 2, §§ 1, 4; Ahearn v. Elder, (1909) 195 N. Y. 493, 88 N. E. 1059, aff'g 130 App. Div. 900. So long as a law regulating the right of suffrage does not add to the qualifications required of electors by the Constitution the legislative will is supreme. Ahearn v. Elder, (1909) 195 N. Y. 493, 88 N. E. 1059, aff'g 130 App. Div. 900. § 356. Delivery of ballots to voters. While the polls of the election are open, the voters entitled to vote and who have not previously voted thereat, may enter within the guard-rail at the polling place of such election for the purpose of voting, in such order that there shall not at any time be within such guard-rail more than twice as many voters as there are voting booths thereat, in addition to the persons lawfully within such guard-rail for other purposes than voting. The voter shall enter within the guardrail through the entrance provided, and shall forthwith proceed to the inspectors and give his name, and, if in a city or village of five thousand inhabitants or over, his residence by street and number, or if it have no street number, a brief description of the locality thereof, and if required by the inspectors shall state whether he is over or under twenty-one years of age. One of the inspectors shall thereupon announce the name and residence of the voter in a loud and distinct tone of voice. No persons shall be allowed to vote in any election district at any election where 'voters are required to be registered unless his name shall be upon the registration books of such election district. The right of any person to vote whose name is on such register shall be subject to challenge. If such voter is entitled to vote thereat and is not challenged, or if challenged and the challenge be decided in his favor, one of the ballot clerks shall then deliver to him one official ballot or a set of official ballots, folded by such ballot clerk in the proper manner for voting, which is: First, by bringing the bottom of the ballot up to the perforated line, and second, by folding both sides to the center, or towards the center, in such manner that when folded the face of each ballot shall be concealed, and the printed number on the stub and the indorsement on the back of the ballot shall be visible, so that the stub can be removed without removing any other part of the ballot, and without exposing any part of the face of the ballot below the stub, and so that when folded the ballot shall not be more than four inches wide. No person other than an inspector or ballot clerk shall deliver to any voter within such guard-rail any ballot, and they shall deliver only such ballots as the voter is legally entitled to vote, and also the sample ballot when the same is asked for. Derivation: Election Law, § 104, subd. 1. Cross-References. Delivery of ballot by a person not a ballot clerk. Penal Law, § 764 (part 5, post). When delivery of ballots must cease. Election Law, § 291. § 357. Assistance to disabled or illiterate voters. Any voter who shall, at the time of registration, have made oath of physical disability or illiteracy, as prescribed by section one hundred and sixty-four of this chapter; or who, being duly registered in an election district where personal registration by all voters is required by law, shall state under oath to the inspectors of election on the day of election that, by reason of some accident, the time and place of which he must specify, or of disease, the nature of which he must also specify, he has, since the day upon which he registered, lost the use of both hands, or become totally blind, or afflicted by such degree of blindness as will prevent him, with the aid of glasses, from seeing the names printed upon the official ballot, or so crippled that he can not |