S 8471: Requires a board of elections or political subdivision that is required to provide language assistance to a particular language-minority group to provide facsimile ballots and sample ballots in such language.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 8471 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE August 6, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. LIU -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to requiring facsimile ballots and sample ballots to be provided in additional languages The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision 2 of section 17-208 of the election law, as 2 added by chapter 226 of the laws of 2022, is amended to read as follows: 3 2. Language assistance to be provided. A board of elections or poli- 4 tical subdivision required to provide language assistance to a partic- 5 ular language-minority group pursuant to this section shall provide 6 voting materials in the covered language of an equal quality of the 7 corresponding English language materials, including registration or 8 voting notices, forms, instructions, assistance, or other materials or 9 information relating to the electoral process, including ballots, 10 facsimile ballots, and sample ballots. Any registration or voting 11 notices, forms, instructions, assistance, or other materials or informa- 12 tion relating to the electoral process, including ballots, facsimile 13 ballots, and sample ballots, in a covered political subdivision, shall 14 be provided in the language of the applicable language-minority group as 15 well as in the English language, provided that where the language of the 16 applicable language-minority group is historically oral or unwritten, 17 the board of elections or political subdivision shall only be required 18 to furnish oral instructions, assistance, or other information relating 19 to registration and voting. 20 § 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day 21 after it shall have become a law and shall apply to elections held on 22 and after such effective date. Effective immediately, the addition, 23 amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the 24 implementation of this act on its effective date are authorized to be 25 made and completed on or before such effective date. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD13514-01-5