ARTICLE 6. REGISTRATION OF VOTERS. Section 150. Meetings for registration. 151. Additional meetings for registration. 153. Adding and erasing names on register. 154. Register of voters. 155. Register where personal registration is required. 156. Register where personal registration is not required. 157. Preparation and distribution of registry lists. 158. Registration in cities and in villages of five thousand inhabitants. 159. Registration elsewhere. 160. Registration for other than general elections. 161. Registration for town or village elections. 162. Qualifications of voters. 163. Gaining or losing a residence. 164. Illiterate and disabled voters. 165. Change of residence within election district. 167. Preparation of challenge affidavits. 168. Form of challenge affidavits. 169. Challenging applicants for registration. 173. Entry requiring challenge by inspectors. 175. Persons excluded from the suffrage. 176. Certification of register. 177. Making up the registers; custody thereof after registration. 179. Certifying changes in registers. 180. Custody of registers after election. 181. Certifying number of registered voters. 182. Delivery of blank books for registration; certificates and instructions. 182a. Special instructions to voters to be prepared for the year nineteen hundred and fourteen. 183. Delivery of previous registers and poll books to inspectors. 184. Penalties. 150. Meetings for registration. 1. Except as otherwise herein provided, before every general election, the board of inspectors for each election district in every city, and in villages having five thousand inhabitants or more shall hold four meetings for the registration of the electors thereof, at the place designated therefor, to be known respectively as the first, second, third and fourth meetings for registration. The said meetings shall be held on the fourth Friday, fourth Saturday and the third Friday and third Saturday before such election. Each meeting shall begin at seven o'clock in the forenoon, and continue until ten o'clock in the evening. In all election districts other than in cities or villages having five thousand inhabitants or more, the board of inspectors of election for each such election district shall hold two meetings for the registration of voters thereof, at the places designated therefor, before each general election, namely, on the fourth and third Saturdays before the election, to be known respectively as the first and second meetings for registration, which meetings shall begin at seven o'clock in the forenoon and continue until ten o'clock in the evening. 2. In a city having more than one million inhabitants, the board of inspec tors for each election district shall hold six meetings for the registration of the electors thereof before each general election. Such meetings shall begin on Monday the twenty-ninth day before such election and continue on each day of the same week up to and including Saturday. On each day except Saturday the meeting shall begin at half-past five o'clock in the evening, and on Saturday at seven o'clock in the morning. All such meetings shall continue until half-past ten o'clock in the evening. Derivation: Election Law, pt. of § 30, as amended by L. 1898, ch. 335, § 4, L. 1901, ch. 300, § 1, L. 1905, ch. 675, § 2. Amended by L. 1911, ch. 649; L. 1913, ch. 800; L. 1915, ch. 678, in effect May 22, 1915. Consolidators' note.-The registration of voters was provided for by stat ute earlier than their enrollment in parties under L. 1898, ch. 179, and we accordingly find the words "enrollment" and "enrolled" occasionally used in the sense of “registration” and “registered." In view of their subsequent use in the different sense, "enrollment" and the like have been changed throughout this article to "registration" and the like. Cross-References.—Requirement of registration to be completed at least ten days before each election. Constitution, art. 2, § 4 (part 2, post). Regis tration for town or village elections. Constitution, art. 2, § 4, and Election Law, § 161. Registration days not holidays. Election Law, § 166. Misconduct of registry officers. Penal Law, § 753 (part 5, post). Constitutionality of registration laws. See People ex rel. Stapleton v. Bell, (1890) 119 N. Y. 175. Hours of closing.-The statutory provision as to closing the meetings for registration at a certain hour refers to the closing of the place of registration, and inspectors should not refuse to register those who are present within the place of registration at the time of closing. People ex rel. Cass v. Hosmer, (1885) 2 How. Pr. (N. S.) 472. See also Report of Atty.-Gen., (1904) 448. Inspectors may adjourn the meeting during designated hours. Report of Atty.-Gen., (1902) 322. § 151. Additional meetings for registration. If a special election be called by the governor or a special or other election be appointed by or pursuant to law for a time other than the day of general election, the inspectors of election of the various election districts in the political subdivision for which such special or other election is to be held shall meet in their respective districts on the second Saturday preceding such election, from eight o'clock in the forenoon to ten o'clock in the evening, for the purpose of revising and correcting the register of voters as provided in this article. Former § 151 repealed by L. 1911, ch. 649. See Election Law, § 153. New § 151 added by L. 1916, ch. 537, in effect May 15, 1916. § 152. Conduct of meetings; watchers. No inspector shall on any day for registration be absent during the hours fixed for registering the names of electors. Each political party or independent body duly filing or entitled to file certificates of nominations of candidates for offices to be filled at any such election may, by a writing signed by the duly authorized county, city, town or village committee of such political party or independ ent body, or by the chairman or secretary thereof charged with that duty, and delivered to and filed with one of the inspectors of election, appoint not more than two watchers to attend any meeting or meetings of inspectors for an election district held for the registration of electors thereof. Each watcher must be a qualified elector of the county in which the election district for which he is appointed a watcher shall be located, provided that women who are citizens and residents of the county, and of the age of twenty-one years, may act as watchers, with full rights and privileges of such office, at any meeting or meetings, of inspectors for an election district held for the registration of electors thereof, immediately preceding any election whenever held at which a woman suffrage constitutional amendment is to be submitted to the voters except that but one woman watcher for, and one woman watcher opposed to, the adoption of such amendment shall be permitted in each election district. Such watchers may be present at such polling place, and within the guard-rail, from at least fifteen minutes before the commencement of the said meeting until the completion of the duties of the board of inspectors for that day of registration. Derivation: Election Law, pt. of § 30, as amended by L. 1898, ch. 335, § 4; L. 1901, ch. 300, § 1; L. 1905, ch. 675, § 2. Amended by L. 1910, ch. 428; L. 1911, ch. 649, and L. 1914, ch. 242, in effect April 8, 1914. Boards to act ministerially. The boards of registration of the several election districts of the State act only ministerially in receiving and registering the names of voters. Matter of Hamilton (1894), 80 Hun 511, 30 N. Y. Supp. 499. § 153. Adding and erasing names on register. If the board of inspectors at any meeting for the registration of electors shall have neglected or refused to place upon the register of electors the name of any person who is entitled to have his name placed thereon, application may be made to the supreme court, or any justice thereof in the judicial district in which such election district is located, or of a county adjoining such judicial district, or to a county judge of the county in which such election district is located, for an order to place such name upon the register of electors; and such court, justice or judge may, upon sufficient evidence, and upon such notice of such application, of not less than twenty-four hours, to the board of inspectors and such other persons interested, as the court, justice or judge may require, order such inspectors to convene as a board of registration on the second Saturday before such election, and to add the name of such person to such register of electors, and such register shall be corrected accordingly; but no court, justice or judge shall order the name of any person to be added to the register of electors unless it shall have been omitted therefrom through the fault, error or negligence of the election officers. In case the name of any person who will not be qualified to vote in such election district, at the election for which such registration is made, shall appear upon such register, application may be made in like manner by any elector of the town or city in which such election district is located, or by the state superintendent of elections or any deputy state superintendent of elections to any court, justice or judge hereinbefore designated, for an order striking such name from the register, and such court, justice or judge may, upon sufficient evidence, and upon such notice of such application, of not less than twenty-four hours, to the person interested as the court, justice or judge may require, served either personally or by depositing the same in the post-office addressed to said person by his name, and at the address which appears in the register certified by the inspectors of election order such board to strike such name from such register of voters, and such register shall be corrected accordingly. In all applications to strike the names of voters from the register under this section an affidavit by the state superintendent of elections or any of his deputies when duly deputed by the state superintendent of elections for that purpose, that investigation was made by him pursuant to the provisions of section four hundred and seventy-five of this chapter, and that the affiant did visit and inspect the premises claimed by the voter as his residence, and did interrogate an inmate, housedweller, keeper, caretaker, owner, proprietor or landlord thereof or therein as to the said voter's residence therein or thereat, and that the said affiant was informed by one or more of said persons, naming them, that they were acquainted with and knew the persons residing therein or thereat, and that the voter did not reside at said premises thirty days be In case fore election, shall be presumptive evidence against the right of the voter to register from such premises, and in case the court, justice or judge direct that service of the order to show cause may be made by depositing the same in the post-office, such service shall not be complete until a copy of the order to show cause shall also have been served upon the custodian of primary records for the political subdivision in which such election district is located, and upon the chairman of each political committee for the political subdivision in which such election district is located. If upon the hearing of such application the court, justice or judge shall decide that the name of the elector shall be stricken from the register, the order of the court, justice or judge shall direct that the board of elections shall cause such name to be stricken from the register and also from the books of enrollment if it appears therein. the elector has, through no fault or neglect of his own, been registered in a wrong election district, the board of elections, upon proper proof, and upon such notice to the chairmen of the county committees of the several parties as the board shall prescribe, may direct that his name be stricken from the register of the district in which he is not a qualified elector and, if he is a qualified elector in an adjoining election district within the jurisdiction of such custodian, may direct that he be registered in the election district in which he is a qualified elector. The proper inspectors of election shall carry out the directions of the board. In a county having a single commissioner of elections or where the duties of a board of elections are performed by a county clerk, such officer shall not have power to make any such direction. In any such county, such direction may be made by the court, upon proper proof. No application to add a name to or strike a name from the register shall be made after a day at least two days prior to the second Saturday before election. Derivation: Election Law, § 31, as amended by L. 1905, ch. 675, § 3. Amended by L. 1911, chs. 649 and 740; L. 1913, ch. 820; L. 1917, ch. 703, in effect June 1, 1917. Consolidators' note.-The expression relating to notice of application to the court has been slightly rearranged in two places, without change of words, in the interest of clearness; in "any of his deputies when duly directed by the state superintendent of elections for that purpose,” "directed" is changed to deputed; and in "that investigation was made by them," "them" is changed to "him," as its antecedent is singular. The final clause of the section, providing that the presumption raised by the affidavit of the superintendent or a deputy "may be rebutted only by the oral testimony under oath or affidavit of the elector whose name is sought to be stricken from the register," is omitted, having been held to be unconstitutional in the Matter of the Application of Morgan as to name of Rolle, (1906) 114 App. Div. 45, 99 N. Y. Supp. 775. Cross-references.- As to qualification of voters for registration, gaining or losing residence, etc., see Election Law, §§ 162-165, and notes thereunder. |