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district of the county which such county committee represents. Two pamphlets containing the lists of the registered persons in the election districts within his precinct shall be furnished to each police captain in all such cities. It shall be the duty of every police captain in every city of the state to forthwith cause an investigation of each name registered in his precinct to be made and to report to the state superintendent of elections at his office in such city or at such other office as such superintendent may in writing designate any case of false registration there found. In any city of the state in which registration lists are not printed, including third class cities, it shall be the duty of the board of elections of the county or of such city to afford necessary facilities, including clerical assistance, to every such police captain in transcribing the whole or any part of the registration lists in aid of the duty of investigation imposed on him under the provisions of this section. The board of elections in each county shall furnish to the state superintendent of elections three copies of each pamphlet printed by it. The remaining pamphlets so printed shall be distributed in the discretion of the said boards, which shall have respectively the power to charge for each pamphlet a sum not exceeding ten cents a copy, and any moneys resulting from the sale thereof shall be paid to the comptroller of the city of New York or county treasurer of the county for the benefit of the treasury of such city or county. The boards of elections shall contract for the printing of such lists of registered electors with whomsoever it may seem to said board to be most advantageous to so contract, but such contract shall only be awarded after proper public notice and to the lowest bidder.

Such lists shall be made and printed as near as may be in the following form, to wit:

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Derivation: Election Law, § 32, subd. 3, as amended by L. 1897, ch. 379, § 8; L. 1899, ch. 649, § 1; L. 1901, ch. 95, § 9; L. 1905, ch. 643, § 7.

Amended by L. 1911, ch. 649; L. 1913, chs. 800 and 821; L. 1915, ch. 678; L. 1916, ch. 537; L. 1917, ch. 703, in effect June 1, 1917.

Consolidators' note. The requirement that the police captain shall report any case of false registration "to his commanding officer and to the board of elections and to the said commissioners of elections," has been changed to "to his commanding officer and in cities of the first class to the board of elections or to the commissioner of elections." New York city has a board of elections, and Buffalo a commissioner (the commissioner of Erie county). There are no other cities of the first class, and no other city has either a board or commissioner of elections.

N. B. Rochester is now a city of the first class.

Cross-references. As to mutilation, destruction or loss of registry lists, see Penal Law, § 754 (part 5, post), and Election Law, § 184.

Alteration of lists. — Right of inspectors. See Report of Atty.-Gen., (1904)

450.

Failure of inspectors to comply with law in preparing register cannot deprive electors of their votes. People ex rel. Frost v. Wilson, (1875), 62 N. Y. 186. Unjustified arrest for crime of false registration, due to carelessness of election officers in preparing list by copying wrong address of a voter. Tanzer v. Breen, (1910) 139 App. Div. 10, 123 N. Y. Supp. 497.

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§ 158. Registration in cities and in villages of five thousand inhabitants.

In cities and villages having five thousand inhabitants or more, the names of such persons only as personally appear before the inspectors, and who are or will be at the election for which the registration is made, qualified electors, shall be registered for a general election, except that whenever any election district in a village having five thousand inhabitants or more shall embrace within its boundaries territory without the limits of such village, the inspectors shall, at their first meeting for registration for a general election, place upon such register the names of all persons appearing on the register of the last preceding general election who resided without the limits of such village but within the election district and who voted at such last preceding general election, except the names of such electors as are proven to the satisfaction. of such inspectors to have ceased to be electors since such general election or to have moved within the limits of such village. They shall also place upon such register, at their first and subsequent meetings, the names of all other persons residing without the limits of the village and within such election district who may then

appear before such inspectors and apply for registration and who are or who will be at the election for which the registration is made qualified electors, and also, at their first and subsequent meetings, the names of all persons not registered under the foregoing provisions who are known or proven to the satisfaction of the inspectors to be then or thereafter entitled to vote at such election and who reside within such election district but without the limits of such city or village.

Derivation: Election Law, § 33, subd. 1.

Amended by L. 1911, ch. 649; L. 1913, ch. 820; L. 1916, ch. 537, in effect May 15, 1916.

Consolidators' note. According to the last sentence of the section, the inspectors are required "to register the names of persons known who are or will be entitled to vote, and of persons proven to the satisfaction of the inspectors who are or will be entitled to vote." On its face the provision is meaningless. The intention is to require the inspectors to register the names of persons "known or proven to their satisfaction to be then or thereafter entitled to vote," at the coming election, and the expression has been made to read so.

Cross-references. - False registration. Penal Law, § 752 (part 5, post). Procuring and presenting fraudulent certificate of naturalization in order to register. Penal Law, §§ 777-778 (part 5, post). Constitutional requirements as to registration. N. Y. Const., art. 2, § 4 (part 2, post).

Board of registration act only ministerially in receiving and registering the names of voters, and must therefore register all who conform in their application for registration to the formal requirement of the law, but must refuse registration to any who fail in such conformation. Matter of Hamilton (1894), 80 Hun 511, 30 N. Y. Supp. 499; People ex rel. Stapleton v. Bell (1890), 119 N. Y. 175.

Inspectors have no right to refuse registration. If an applicant for registration makes the proper statement and takes the required oath or affirmation his name must be entered on the list of voters, and the inspectors have no discretion or right to refuse it. The law makes it their duty to do so, yet if a person who has been refused and applies to the court for a mandamus against the inspectors and it appears that he had no right to register and was not in fact a qualified voter, would the court compel the inspectors to register him and then place him in a position that he may cast a legal vote? Sherwood v. Bd. of Convassers (1892), 129 N. Y. 360.

$159. Registration elsewhere.

At the first meeting for registration in any election district where only two meetings for the registration of voters are held

for any general election, as provided in section one hundred and fifty of this article, the inspectors shall place upon the register the names of all persons who voted at the last preceding general election, as shown by the register or poll book of such election, except the names of such voters as are proven to the satisfaction of such inspectors to have ceased to be voters in such district since such general election. They shall also place upon the register at their first and second meetings the names of all other persons who then appear before such inspectors and apply for registration and who are or will be, at the election for which the registration is made, qualified electors, and also, at their first and second meetings, the names of all persons not registered under the foregoing provisions who are known or proven to the satisfaction of the inspectors to be then or thereafter entitled to vote at such election. Derivation: Election Law, § 33, subd. 2, as renumbered by L. 1899, ch. 630,

87.

Amended by L. 1911, ch. 649; L. 1913, ch. 820; L. 1916, ch. 537, in effect May 15, 1916.

The name of a voter appearing upon a new register will not be stricken therefrom merely because his place of residence is not stated, for he cannot be deprived of his constitutional right to vote because the board of inspectors failed to perform a clerical duty in filling in his place of residence. Matter of Matthews (1911), 143 App. Div. 561.

Section 159 of the Election Law makes it the duty of the board of registration in districts where personal registration is not necessary to place upon the register the names of all persons who voted at the last preceding general election as shown by the register of such election, and it is presumed that they performed their statutory duty in this respect. Matter of Matthews (1911), 143 App. Div. 561.

Whatever is necessary to render effective any provision of a Constitution, whether it is a grant, restriction or prohibition, must be deemed implied and intended in the provision itself. Hence, when the Constitution provides that certain voters" shall not be required to apply in person for registration at the first meeting of the " inspectors, it is implied that the legislature is prohibited from passing any statute to the contrary, because that implication is necessary to render the provision effective. Matter of Fraser v. Brown (1911), 203 N. Y. 137.

The legislature exceeded its power in providing that all voters residing outside of cities or villages with a population of five thousand or more whose names do not appear on the poll book of the last general election shall apply in person in order to be registered, and the attempt to impose this requirement, as made by section 6 of chapter 649 of the Laws of 1911, is unconstitutional and void. Matter of Fraser v. Brown (1911), 203 N. Y. 137. See also Matter of Danniels (1911), 74 Misc. 485. Duty of inspectors to act independently of formal application.-Under the provision of this section that at the first meeting for registration in any district where only two meetings are held the board of election inspectors shall place upon the registry the names of all voters at the last election and the names of all persons then entitled to vote, it is the duty of the inspectors to act independently of any formal application by a voter and to register his name; and their failure so to do cannot prejudice his rights but an order may be granted compelling them to do so. Matter of Danniels (1911), 74 Misc. 485.

Constitutionality. The provisions of this section, as amended by L. 1913, ch. 820, requiring proof by the affidavits of himself and two qualified elec.. tors, in the form prescribed, as the condition of the registration of an elector, without his personal appearance at the first meeting of the registry board in districts outside a city or village having five thousand inhabitants or more, are violative of § 4, art. 2 of the constitution. Matter of Rupert v. Rees (1914), 212 N. Y. 514, rev'g 164 App. Div. 922.

§ 160. Registration for other than general elections.

At the meeting of the board of inspectors in a city or village having five thousand inhabitants or more, for revising and correcting the register for any election other than a general election, the inspectors shall retain upon the register of their respective districts the names of all persons qualified to vote at such election in such district which appears upon the register of electors for the last preceding general election in such election district, except the names of such electors as are proven to the satisfaction of the inspectors to have ceased to be electors of such district since their names were placed upon such register, and shall, at such meeting, add only to such register the names of the persons qualified as electors who shall personally appear before the board. If, however, such elector resides within such election district, but without the limits of such village, his name shall be placed upon such register, if it is shown to the satisfaction of such board that he is entitled to vote therein.

In cities any elector who has registered in an election district of such city at the last preceding general election, and who since that time shall have removed into another election district in the same city, and who is otherwise qualified to vote at such special election, shall, upon demand, receive from the board of inspectors of the district in which he was registered for such last preceding general

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