New York Laws
Article 53 - School Elections in City School Districts of Cities With Less Than One Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Inhabitants
2606 - Registration of Voters.

§ 2606. Registration of voters. 1. The board of education except in
those city school districts which have adopted a resolution pursuant to
section twenty-five hundred thirty-one of this chapter, shall, on or
before the fifteenth day of February in each year, appoint a board of
registration for a term of one year, consisting of as many members as
the board shall deem necessary, not more than half of whom shall belong
to the same political party, and shall designate a place within the city
school district where such board of registration shall attend for the
purpose of preparing a register for each school election district. Each
member of the board of registration shall be entitled to compensation at
a rate not to exceed that paid at general elections in the city.

2. The board of registration of such city school district shall meet
at the designated place for the purpose of preparing the registers for
such election on such day or days as shall be fixed by the board of
education, the last day of which, however, shall not be less than two
weeks preceding each school election, at such hours as the board of
education shall by resolution designate at least twenty days before the
first registration day, which hours shall include at least four hours
between seven o'clock in the morning and eight o'clock in the evening.
The registers shall, so far as practicable, be in the same form as the
register of voters in an election district for a general election in a
city or village having five thousand inhabitants or more, under the
election law. Such registers shall be arranged alphabetically by the
first letter of surnames, and the place of residence by street and
number, or by a description accurately locating such place of residence,
of each person entered in such registers shall be given.

Notwithstanding any other general or special law, the board of
registration shall have the power to require the board of elections or
other authority having lawful custody of the register or registers used
at the general elections last preceding such school election to turn
over such register or registers to such board of registration on or
before March first of each year for use on the date or dates of such
registration and election, for the purpose of preparing the school
district registers therefrom. Such board of elections or other authority
may, however, elect to furnish, in place of the original registers
either a duplicate of the central file registration records, or a list
of registered voters, certified to be a complete and accurate copy of
the names and addresses of all persons entered in such register for the
last preceding general election as well as the names of persons who have
registered with such board of elections or other authority up to five
days before the date of furnishing such list. On the day following the
day of the election, the general election register or registers shall be
returned to the authority from whom such register or registers were
secured. In addition, the board of registration shall include in each
school district register, the names and addresses of persons who
registered for any intervening school district election, but who were
not registered for the preceding general election. The board of
registration shall, for each election of the school district, add to
such registers the names of the qualified voters of the school district
who shall present themselves personally for registration. Only those
qualified voters who are not registered under permanent personal
registration on or before the last registration day found on the
original or duplicate registers or records or list furnished by the
board of elections and have not voted at an intervening school district
election, shall be required to present themselves personally for
registration.

3. All the provisions of the election law in relation to the
registration of voters in a city or village having five thousand

inhabitants or more, shall so far as practicable and consistent with the
provisions of this article, apply to the registration provided for in
this section.

4. The district clerk shall furnish the necessary registration
material to the board of registration at the expense of the school
district.

5. The board of education shall publish a notice of registration at
least once in each of the two weeks preceding the first registration day
designated, in a newspaper having a general circulation in the city
school district; or, at least two weeks preceding the first registration
day designated, the board shall post a printed copy of the notice
conspicuously in twenty places frequented by the public within such
district. Such notice shall state that at a place and hour or hours at
which the board of registration shall meet to prepare the school
election district registers, any person who has not currently registered
under permanent personal registration by the last date found on such
original or duplicate registers, or records, or list furnished by the
board of elections, and has not voted at an intervening election, must,
in order to be entitled to vote, present himself personally for
registration. Such notice shall state the last date found on such
original or duplicate registers or records or list furnished by the
board of elections.

6. The registers prepared as provided in this section shall,
immediately upon completion and not less than two weeks prior to the
time set for the school election at which they are to be used, be filed
in the office of the clerk of the board of education, and thereafter
shall at all reasonable times be open to inspection by any qualified
voter of the school district. Upon the filing of such registers, the
board of education shall publish at least once in each of the two weeks
preceding such election in a newspaper having a general circulation in
the city school district, or shall post conspicuously in twenty places
frequented by the public within the school district, a notice stating
that the school election district registers have been filed and noting
the place at which they are on file and the hours during which they will
be open for inspection in each day up to the day set for the election.

7. Any person who is duly qualified to vote and who registered for the
preceding general election or any intervening school district election,
and whose name was by mistake, error or neglect of the board of
registration, omitted from the school election district register, may at
any time either before or during election day request the clerk of the
board of education to place the name of such voter on the appropriate
register. If the clerk of the board of education shall find that such an
omission has been made, he shall place the voter's name on the register.
In the event of the failure, refusal or neglect of the clerk of the
board of education to comply with such request, a court, justice or
judge in a proceeding instituted by such voter may grant an order
compelling such clerk forthwith to enter the voter's name on the
register.

8. A qualified voter may, upon the examination of the registers, file
a challenge of the qualifications as a voter of any person whose name
appears on such registers. Such challenges shall be written, shall be
under oath and shall be on blanks to be furnished by the board of
education.

9. Challenges shall be received and preserved by the clerk of the
board or other person designated by the board, and upon receipt thereof,
the clerk shall file such challenge or copy thereof with the register,
and shall place the words "to be challenged on the day of election"
opposite the name of such person on the register.

10. The clerk of the board of education shall cause a copy of the
appropriate register of such school district to be delivered on the day
of the election before the opening of the polls to the inspectors of
election at each voting place within the district at the place or places
where the election is to be held.

11. School elections in any school district subject to the provisions
of this article, shall hereafter be conducted in the manner provided in
this article, and no person shall be entitled to vote whose name does
not appear upon the register of the school election district in which he
claims to be entitled to vote.

Any person who has moved from one school election district to another,
in the same city school district and who has not registered in the new
school election district, and who is still registered in the district
from which he moved, may vote in the election district in which he is
registered. Such person must at the time of voting advise the election
inspectors of his new address and they shall advise the board of
registration to correct such registration.

12. The provisions of this section shall not apply with respect to any
person registered to vote pursuant to the provisions of section three
hundred fifty-two of the election law.