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§ 355. General duties of poll clerks during the taking of the vote. 1. Poll clerks shall keep a record of the persons voting or offering to vote. In an election district or at a special election where poll-books separate from the register are not required, the columns of the poll-books sections of two copies of the register, and in cases where the registration of electors was required to be personal, the column for" signature or statement number of elector" in a copy of the register other than the one containing the signature or statement number of the elector made on a day of registration, shall be used for such record and shall constitute the poll-book.

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2. Each poll clerk at each polling place for which official ballots are required to be provided, at any such election in a city of over one million inhabitants, and at any such election elsewhere which is not held at the time of a general election, shall have a poll-book for keeping the list of electors voting or offering to vote thereat at the election. Such book shall have nine columns headed respectively: "Number of elector," "Names of electors," "Residence of electors," "Age of electors," "Signature or statement number of elector," Signatures compared by inspector," "Number on ballots delivered to electors," "Number on ballots, voted," and "Remarks." The column headed "Signature or statement number of elector" shall have printed above each horizontal line the words "the foregoing statements are true;" 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 at a special election 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. The pages of such poll-book shall be numbered consecutively.

3. One of the poll clerks at each polling place shall be designated by the board of inspectors of election to question each elector as required by law and it shall be his duty to question each elector in respect to his name, his age unless it be stated as over thirty years, his residence by street and number, or if it has no street

number, a brief description of the locality thereof. In an election district where the poll-book is separate from the register, the answer of each elector to each such question shall be entered in ink by each poll clerk in the appropriate column of the pollbook kept by him, the name of each elector being placed in the alphabetical order of the first letter of his surname. 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 pen and ink, below the words "the foregoing statements are true" in the pollbook 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.

4. 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 signature made in the poll-book with the signature theretofore made by the elector in the register on registration day, and if said signature is the same, or sufficiently similar to the signature written on registration day, as to identify it as being written by the same person who wrote the signature on registration day, said inspector shall thereupon orally announce that fact and shall also immediately certify that fact by writing his initials after such signature, in the column headed "signatures compared by inspector," except that where the poll-book is a part of the register, he shall certify such fact by writing his initials after the signature so made by the elector. 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.

5. If, on registration day, an elector whose registration was

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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, opposite the name of such elector answering the questions, in the column of the poll-book entitled Signature or statement number of elector." 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.

6. 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.

7. Previous to each delivery of an official ballot or set of official ballots by the ballot clerk to an elector, in an election district and at any election where the poll-book is separate from the

register, each poll clerk shall enter upon his poll-book in the first column the number of the elector, in the successive order of the delivery of ballots to electors. Each poll clerk in every election district of the state, at any election where official ballots are used, 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, each poll clerk shall write opposite the elector's name on the poll book kept by such clerk, in the proper column, the printed number on the stub of such ballot or additional set of ballots.

8. Each poll clerk shall make a memorandum upon his pollbook 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.

9. 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; L. 1918, ch. 323; L. 1919, ch. 504, in effect Oct. 1, 1919.

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 guard-rail 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

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