S 1649: Relates to the order of candidate and delegate names on primary ballots in cities with a population of one million or more as of the latest federal decennial census and provides for a rotation of names in subsequent elections.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 1649 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE January 13, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. LIU -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Elections AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to primary election voting ballots in the city of New York The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Section 7-116 of the election law is amended by adding a 2 new subdivision 6-a to read as follows: 3 6-a. Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision six of this 4 section, in the city of New York, the ballot on the voting machine for 5 primary elections shall conform to the following additional provisions: 6 The names of the candidates designated for such public office or party 7 position in the primary of a party shall be placed under the title of 8 the office or position in the alphabetical order of their surnames, in 9 the first or lowest numbered assembly district and election district of 10 any political unit or subdivision within a county. If candidates' 11 surnames are identical, their given or first name shall determine their 12 order. Thereafter the names shall be rotated by election districts by 13 transposing the first named candidate to the bottom of the order at each 14 succeeding election district, so that each name shall appear first and 15 in each other position in an equal number, as nearly as possible, of the 16 election districts and except, further, that where two or more candi- 17 dates are to be elected to the same party position, the names of candi- 18 dates for such a position which appear on the same designating petition 19 shall be grouped together on the ballot in the order in which their 20 names appear on the designating petition and the group rotated alphabet- 21 ically in relation to other groups or individual candidates according to 22 the surname of the first person on the designating petition of such 23 group. Groups of candidates for delegate and alternate delegate, and 24 groups of candidates for male and female delegate and male and female 25 alternate delegate to the same convention designated on the same peti- EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD03269-01-5 
 S. 1649 2 1 tion shall be rotated together alphabetically in relation to other 2 groups or individual candidates according to the surname of the first 3 person listed on such designating petition in the group of candidates 4 for whichever of such delegate or alternate delegate positions will 5 appear first on the voting machine. If the rules of a party committee 6 provide for equal representation of the sexes among the members of a 7 state committee elected from each unit of representation, elections for 8 male and female members of such a committee from a single unit of repre- 9 sentation shall be conducted as elections for two different party posi- 10 tions. Notwithstanding the provisions of this paragraph, if the board 11 of elections has assigned numbers to the candidates for an office or 12 position because of identical or similar names among such candidates, 13 the names of such candidates shall be placed under the title of such 14 office or position in the order of such numbers in such first or lowest 15 numbered district, and the names shall not be rotated by election 16 district. Such names shall appear in the identical order on each ballot 17 in each election district. 18 County committee candidates or groups of candidates shall be printed 19 within the first election district of each assembly district or part 20 thereof, according to the priority of filing of designating petitions 21 and they shall then be rotated by election district by placing the 22 candidate or group of candidates designated in the same petition as the 23 candidate or group of candidates which was printed first in an election 24 district at the bottom of the order in the next succeeding election 25 district in which a candidate or group of candidates designated in such 26 petition appears on the ballot. 27 In cases where a name is added to or removed from the ballot by court 28 order too late to make a complete adjustment to these requirements 29 feasible, the name may be added at the bottom of the list of candidates 30 in all election districts, or removed from the ballot in all election 31 districts without changing the previously arranged order of other names 32 and without invalidating the election. Any inadvertent error in the 33 order of names discovered too late to correct the order of the names on 34 the ballots concerned shall not invalidate an election. 35 Except where a contest or candidate is removed from the ballot by 36 court order too late to make complete compliance with this paragraph 37 feasible, the title of each public office or party position and the 38 names of the candidates for such office or position appearing on any 39 voting machine used for primary elections in the city of New York shall 40 appear on such machine immediately adjacent to one another, either 41 horizontally or vertically; and no blank spaces shall separate the names 42 of candidates actually running for an office or party position on such 43 voting machine, and no blank spaces shall separate any two such offices 44 or positions which appear on such voting machine in the same column or 45 row. 46 § 2. This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall 47 have become a law and shall apply to elections occurring on and after 48 such date.