A 8985: Permits boards of elections to opt to mail communications regarding primary elections to only those voters eligible to vote in such primary elections; excludes such option for the board of elections of the city of New York.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 8985 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN ASSEMBLY August 13, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. STECK -- read once and referred to the Committee on Election Law AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to communications mailed to registered voters regarding primary elections The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 4-117 of the election law, as 2 amended by chapter 481 of the laws of 2023, is amended to read as 3 follows: 4 1. The board of elections, between the third Tuesday in April and the 5 second Friday in May in each year, shall send by mail on which is 6 endorsed such language designated by the state board of elections to 7 ensure postal authorities do not forward such mail but return it to the 8 board of elections with forwarding information, when it cannot be deliv- 9 ered as addressed and which contains a request that any such mail 10 received for persons not residing at the address be dropped back in the 11 mail, a communication, in a form approved by the state board of 12 elections, to every registered voter, except as otherwise provided in 13 this subdivision, who has been registered without a change of address 14 since the beginning of such year, except that the board of elections 15 shall not be required to send such communications to voters in inactive 16 status. The communication shall notify the voter in bold print contained 17 in such notice of the days and hours of the ensuing [primary and] gener- 18 al elections and primary elections, where applicable, the place where 19 [he or she] such voter appears by [his or her] their registration 20 records to be entitled to vote, and also in other than bold type of the 21 fact that voters who have moved or will have moved from the address 22 where they were last registered must either notify the board of 23 elections of [his or her] their new address or vote by paper ballot at 24 the polling place for [his or her] their new address even if such voter 25 has not re-registered, or otherwise notified the board of elections of EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD13353-01-5 
 A. 8985 2 1 the change of address. In lieu of sending the communication to every 2 registered voter, a board of elections, except the board of elections of 3 the city of New York, may elect to send such communication with regard 4 to primary elections only to those voters who are eligible to vote in 5 such primary elections. If the primary will not be held on the first 6 Tuesday after the second Monday in September, the communication shall 7 contain a conspicuous notice in all capital letters and bold font noti- 8 fying the voter of the primary date. If the location of the polling 9 place for the voter's election district has been moved, the communi- 10 cation shall contain the following legend in bold type: "YOUR POLLING 11 PLACE HAS BEEN CHANGED. YOU NOW VOTE AT..........". The communication 12 shall indicate that any registered voter may vote early by mail by 13 applying for an early mail ballot, and provide information on how to 14 apply for an early mail ballot. The communication shall also indicate 15 whether the polling place is accessible to physically disabled voters, 16 that a voter who will be out of the city or county on the day of the 17 primary or general election or a voter who is ill or physically disabled 18 may obtain an absentee ballot, that a physically disabled voter whose 19 polling place is not accessible may request that [his] their registra- 20 tion record be moved to an election district which has a polling place 21 which is accessible, the phone number to call for applications to move a 22 registration record or for early mail or absentee ballot applications, 23 the phone number to call for the location of registration and polling 24 places, the phone number to call to indicate that the voter is willing 25 to serve on election day as an election inspector, poll clerk, inter- 26 preter or in other capacities, the phone number to call to obtain an 27 application for registration by mail, and such other information 28 concerning the elections or registration as the board may include. In 29 lieu of sending such communication to every registered voter, the board 30 of elections may send a single communication to a household containing 31 more than one registered voter, provided that the names of all such 32 voters appear as part of the address on such communication. 33 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeed- 34 ing the date on which it shall have become a law.