New York Laws
Article 4 - Proceedings Preliminary to Registration, Enrollment and Elections
4-117 - Check of Registrants and Information Notice by Mail.

§ 4-117. Check of registrants and information notice by mail. 1. The
board of elections, between the third Tuesday in April and the second
Friday in May in each year, shall send by mail on which is endorsed such
language designated by the state board of elections to ensure postal
authorities do not forward such mail but return it to the board of
elections with forwarding information, when it cannot be delivered as
addressed and which contains a request that any such mail received for
persons not residing at the address be dropped back in the mail, a
communication, in a form approved by the state board of elections, to
every registered voter who has been registered without a change of
address since the beginning of such year, except that the board of
elections shall not be required to send such communications to voters in
inactive status. The communication shall notify the voter in bold print
contained in such notice of the days and hours of the ensuing primary
and general elections, the place where he or she appears by his or her
registration records to be entitled to vote, and also in other than bold
type of the fact that voters who have moved or will have moved from the
address where they were last registered must either notify the board of
elections of his or her new address or vote by paper ballot at the
polling place for his or her new address even if such voter has not
re-registered, or otherwise notified the board of elections of the
change of address. If the primary will not be held on the first Tuesday
after the second Monday in September, the communication shall contain a
conspicuous notice in all capital letters and bold font notifying the
voter of the primary date. If the location of the polling place for the
voter's election district has been moved, the communication shall
contain the following legend in bold type: "YOUR POLLING PLACE HAS BEEN
CHANGED. YOU NOW VOTE AT..........". The communication shall also
indicate whether the polling place is accessible to physically disabled
voters, that a voter who will be out of the city or county on the day of
the primary or general election or a voter who is ill or physically
disabled may obtain an absentee ballot, that a physically disabled voter
whose polling place is not accessible may request that his registration
record be moved to an election district which has a polling place which
is accessible, the phone number to call for applications to move a
registration record or for absentee ballot applications, the phone
number to call for the location of registration and polling places, the
phone number to call to indicate that the voter is willing to serve on
election day as an election inspector, poll clerk, interpreter or in
other capacities, the phone number to call to obtain an application for
registration by mail, and such other information concerning the
elections or registration as the board may include. In lieu of sending
such communication to every registered voter, the board of elections may
send a single communication to a household containing more than one
registered voter, provided that the names of all such voters appear as
part of the address on such communication.

1-a. The notice required by subdivision one of this section shall
include the dates, hours and locations of early voting for the general
and primary election. The board of elections may alternatively satisfy
the notice requirement of this subdivision by providing in the notice
instructions to obtain the required early voting information by means of
a website and phone number of the board of elections.

2. Whenever a ballot proposal is to be submitted to the people for
approval at any election, the board of elections may send to every
registered voter, by the same mail containing the communication required
by this section, a copy of the abstract of such ballot proposal.

3. Each year, in the month of December, the commissioners of every
local board of elections shall file with the state board of elections,

on a form provided therefor by such state board, a statement setting
forth the approximate number of communications mailed pursuant to the
requirements of this section and the approximate number of such
communications returned by the post office. Such statement shall be
sworn or subscribed to and bear a form notice that false statements made
therein are punishable as a class A misdemeanor pursuant to section
210.45 of the penal law. The failure of a local board of elections to
file such a certificate in any year, within the time prescribed, shall
create a presumption that such board of elections did not mail such
communications in such year. Not later than January thirty-first of each
year, the state board of elections shall publish a chart listing, by
county, the numbers contained in the certificates required to be filed
by each local board of elections in December of the previous year
pursuant to the provisions of this subdivision.