4-117. Check of registrants and information notice by mail. 1. The board of elections, between August first and August fifth of 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 of the days and hours of the ensuing primary and general elections, the place where he appears by his registration records to be entitled to vote, the fact that voters who have moved or will have moved from the address where they were last registered must re-register or, that if such move was to another address in the same county or city, that such voter may either notify the board of elections of his new address or vote by paper ballot at the polling place for his new address even if such voter has not re-registered, or otherwise notified the board of elections of the change of address. 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.
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.
Last modified: February 3, 2019