age. In the tenth, eleventh and twelfth columns shall be entered the length of the elector's residence by years, months and days as the case may be, in the state, county and election district, respectively. In the thirteenth column shall be entered the country of his nativity, which shall mean the country, state or province of the elector's birth, irrespective of his former political allegiance. In the fourteenth and fifteenth columns, if the voter be a naturalized citizen, shall be entered the date of the naturalization certificate under which he claims citizenship and the court issuing such naturalization certificate. In the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth columns shall be entered respectively the name of the state, the city or town, the street number and the name of the street or avenue of the residence of such person from which such person last registered or voted, and the year in which he last registered or voted. In the twentieth column shall be entered, if the elector is in business for himself or with others, the name under which he is so in business, or, if the elector is employed by some other person, the name of his present employer. If he is not in business and has no employment, the word "none" shall be entered, together with the name under which he was last in business or the name of his last employer, if any. In the twentyfirst column shall be entered the street and number, or if it has no street number, a brief description of the location of the place, if any, where he is so in business or employed, or, if unemployed, the place, if any, where he was last in business or employed. The twenty-second column shall be reserved for the signature of any elector who registers personally, at the time of registration, or, in case the elector alleges his inability to write, for entering therein the number of the "identification statement for registration day" made by such elector as hereinafter provided. Above each horizontal line in the said twenty-second column shall be printed the words "the foregoing statements are true" and the elector shall at the time of personal registration, sign his name by his own hand and without assistance, using an indelible pencil or pen and ink, below such words on the horizontal line in the register of electors,

which register shall be known as the "signature copy." Said sig. nature copy shall be one of the registers, other than the public copy, which signature copy shall be kept by an inspector of opposite political faith from the chairman, and shall be used at the polls on election day. In the twenty-third column the person who has personally made the entries aforesaid in registering the voter shall sign his own initials in evidence thereof, which signature must be made at the same time that the voter is registered. In the twenty-fourth column shall be entered the number on the enrollment blank which is given to the voter to enable him to enroll in a party as provided in article two of this law. The twentyfifth column shall be reserved for the entry of the name of the party, if any, in which the voter enrolls, or other statement, as provided in said article two of this law. The twenty-sixth column shall be entitled "No. of Stub, Election Day," and shall be reserved for entering therein the consecutive number on the stub of the official ballot or set of ballots voted by such voter on election day. The twenty-seventh column shall be entitled "No. of Stub, 1st Primary," and shall be reserved for entering therein the consecutive number on the stub of the official ballot cast by such voter at the first official primary, whether spring or fall, following the general election for which such registration was made. The twenty-eighth column shall be entitled "No. of Stub, 2d Primary," and shall be reserved for entering therein the consecutive number on the stub of the official ballot cast by such voter at the next succeeding official primary held prior to the next enrollment, or, should an unofficial primary be held, for the entry of the word Yes" to indicate that such voter voted at such primary. In preparing the registers for the general election next preceding a presidential election an additional column (the twenty-ninth in such case) shall be included, entitled "No. of Stub, 3rd Primary," and shall be reserved for use at a third primary, if any, as above provided for a second primary in other years. The last column in the register shall be entitled "Remarks regarding challenges, oaths, and other facts required to be recorded," and in such column shall be entered, opposite the name

of each voter, with the date of each such entry, such record of challenges, oaths, and other facts relating to him as this law. requires to be entered in the register and are not otherwise provided for.

3. The provisions of this subdivision shall apply to all election districts in which the registration of electors is required to be personal. If the elector alleges his inability to so sign in the cases provided for in either of the foregoing subdivisions, one of the inspectors, designated by the chairman, shall read to the elector the following list of questions from a book to be furnished said inspector and to be known as "identification statements for registration day," and said inspector shall write down in said book the answers of the elector to said questions: What is your true name? What is or was your father's full name? What is or was your mother's full name? What is your occupation? What is the name of your present employer? If unemployed, what is the name of your last employer? Where is or was his place of business? Are you married or single? Where did you actually reside immediately prior to taking up your present residence; state floor and character of premises? At the bottom of each 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 truly recorded his answers as above to each of said questions," and said inspector who has made the above record shall forthwith sign his name to said certificate and date the same. The above questions shall be printed on separate sheets of paper which shall be furnished said inspector bound together in book form and numbered consecutively, and the number corresponding to the number on each sheet containing said list of questions shall be entered when the questions have been answered, in the twenty-second column, in the register of electors in which the electors registering have signed their names. Said book of "identification statements for registration day" shall be kept at all times with the register in which the electors sign their names as herein before provided. A sufficient number of identification statements for registration and election days, bound in book

form shall be furnished to each board of inspectors in the same manner as the registration and poll-books are now furnished to said boards of inspectors. The lines in the registers and pollbooks for election districts in which the registration of electors is required to be personal shall be one-half inch apart.

4. Each page of the registers and poll-books for any election district in the state shall in every case be consecutively numbered. Derivation: Election Law, § 32, pt. of subd. 1, as amended by L. 1899, ch. 630 § 5; L. 1901, ch. 113, § 1; L. 1905, ch. 675, § 4, and L. 1908, ch. 521, § 1. Amended by L. 1910, ch. 428; L. 1911, ch. 649; L. 1915, ch. 678; L. 1916, ch. 537, in effect May 15, 1916.

Consolidators' note.-"The register shall be arranged in nineteen columns changed to twenty." L. 1905, ch. 675, inserted an additional column but failed to change "nineteen" to "twenty."

Cross-references.- Failure of house dweller to answer inquiries. See Penal Law, § 757 (part 5, post). Lodging house keepers in cities of the first class to keep registers between September 1 and November 15. See General City Law, §§ 110-115 (part 7, post). As to duty of lodging house and hotel keepers to keep register, see Election Law, § 480.

The duties of a board of inspectors of election in attending the registration of voters in order to ascertain who are qualified electors are not of an inquisitorial nature but purely ministerial, and the questions they are permitted to ask are for the sole purpose of testing the intending voter's qualifications. Koninski v. Vieser (1916), 97 Misc. 259, 161 N. Y. Supp. 129.

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 quali fications 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.

Prompting voters in answering questions.-The provisions that no one shall prompt a voter in answering any question provided in this section refers only to prompting by another person present upon the immediate occasion when the elector is being read the prescribed questions and having his answers thereto written down at the time of registration or when offering to vote on election day. An elector is not prevented from gaining information required to answer such questions from other sources nor from referring to a written or printed memorandum. Rept. of Atty.-Gen. (1908), 403.

A native of Poland upon becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States of America cannot be deprived of his right to vote or participate at the next primary election because at the registration of voters he refused to give to the board of inspectors of election any further details as to the place of his nativity than to answer that he was born in Poland. Koninski v. Vieser (1916), 97 Misc. 259, 161 N. Y. Supp. 129.

Effect of destruction of "Identification Statements for Registration Day."If the method of identification of electors is impaired by reason of the failure of public officers to safeguard the identification registers, such impairment

should not be allowed to disfranchise an otherwise qualified elector. Rept. of Atty.-Genl., (1908) 414.

§ 156. Register where personal registration is not required.

Note.

Repealed by L. 1911, ch. 649. In effect July 13, 1911. See Election Law, § 157, as amended.

§ 157. Preparation and distribution of registry lists; investigation of false registration.

The board of inspectors of each election district shall, immediately after the close of the last day of registration, make and complete one list of all persons registered in their respective districts, in the numerical order of the street numbers thereof, which list shall be signed and certified by the board of inspectors. Such list shall be delivered by the chairman of the board of inspectors to the police captain of the precinct, if any, in which the election district is located, or an officer thereof, or to the town clerk, who shall forthwith deliver the same to the board of elections in the county in which such election district is located. The board of elections of each county containing a city of the first or second class and the board of elections of the city of New York, as soon as possible after the delivery of such lists, and, in the city of New York, within one hundred and eight hours after the close of each annual registration, and elsewhere not less than six days prior to the day of election, shall print in pamphlet form for each ward of any city within their respective counties, or for each assembly district in the city of New York, not less than twenty-five times as many copies of said registration lists as there are election districts in such assembly district or ward, so that each assembly district or ward pamphlet shall contain the lists of the several election districts in such assembly district or ward. Upon the written application of the chairman of the executive committee of the county committee of any political party whose candidates are entitled to a place upon the official ballot to be voted at the election for which the registration is made, the board of elections of such city or of any such county, as the case may be, shall respectively deliver to such chairman five copies of each assembly district or ward pamphlet for each election district within such city, or, in the city of New York, within each assembly