Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 39, September 25, 2024
(a) In order to vote in New York State, a
person must possess the constitutional and statutory qualifications of an
elector and must be registered to vote, and if required, be enrolled in a
political party.
(1) Qualifications to
register to vote:
(i) United States
citizen;
(ii) eighteen years of age
or older on election day or will be at least 18 years old not later than
December 31st of the calendar year in which he or she registers; and
(iii) resident in New York State and of the
county, city or village for a minimum of 30 days next preceding such
election.
(2)
Disqualifications from voter registration:
(i)
death;
(ii) sentenced to prison
based upon a felony conviction;
(iii) moves out of their county of residence;
or
(iv) adjudged mentally
incompetent by the order of a court.
(b) When a voter registration application is
received, the county board is responsible for processing each application and
determining whether the application is complete and whether the applicant meets
constitutional and statutory requirements. All voter registration applications
shall be date and time stamped to establish eligibility and to establish the
time lapse of not more than 21 days maximum for a completely processed voter
registration. Procedures for opening mail, time stamping documents or
pre-screening, to the extent that they are not prescribed by this Part, are
left to the county boards to establish.
(c) All voter registration activity must be
done by a bipartisan team of workers, to assure fairness and uniformity in the
process.
(1) Bipartisan processing:
(i) Staff member(s) of one major political
party review(s) and enters the information from either an individual
application or a batch of applications.
(ii) The work on such application or batch of
applications is proofread and reviewed by a staff member(s) of the opposite
major political party.
(iii) Any
edits or changes to the information initially entered must be made and
approved, in a bipartisan process, by the two staff members of opposite
parties.
(iv) Once completed by two
staff members of opposite parties, the information is sent from the county
registration system to NYSVoter for inclusion on the statewide list of
registered voters, and verification of each voter's identity.
(d) Once an application
for registration has been entered it is processed in one of three ways:
(1) Registered. The voter's registration
record has been updated with all following required information:
(i) the applicant's name;
(ii) the applicant's complete residence
address;
(iii) the applicant's date
of birth such that the applicant is or will be 18 years of age by Election Day
or not later than December 31st of the calendar year in which he or she
registers;
(iv) a mark in the
checkbox affirming the applicant is a citizen of the United States;
(v) verification information:
(a) the applicant's current and valid New
York driver's license number or, the non- driver's identification number;
or
(b) if the applicant has not
been issued a current and valid New York driver's license or non-driver's
identification card, the last four digits of the applicant's social security
number; or
(c) in the case where an
applicant has not been issued a current and valid New York driver's license or
non-driver's identification card or social security number, the applicant shall
affirm this fact in the manner prescribed in the uniform statewide voter
registration application; and
(vi) original signature of the applicant
swearing or affirming that the information contained in the registration
application is true.
(2)
Incomplete. A voter registration application is incomplete if it does not
contain the required information in paragraph (a)(1) of this section; and
incomplete voter records are not uploaded to the NYSVoter database, but may be
maintained within the county election management system.
(3) Denied. Once an application is denied,
the voter is provided a notification; denied voter records are not uploaded to
the NYSVoter database, but may be maintained within the county election
management system.
(4) If any of
the required information is missing on the voter registration application, the
county board shall take immediate steps to obtain the missing information. In
any such case the county board shall notify the applicant of the reasons that
the registration application is incomplete and the period of time in which the
application information must be provided in order to be eligible to vote in the
next election.
(5) When the missing
information is necessary to verify the applicant's identity pursuant to
Election Law, section
5-210, the application shall be processed,
the applicant registered, and a notice of approval which includes an indication
that the county board has not been able to verify the identity of the applicant
and a request for more information so that such verification may be completed
shall be sent to the registrant pursuant to statute and these
regulations.
(e)
Following entry into the county voter registration system, all information in
the application for voter registration must be transferred electronically to
NYSVoter which will then electronically notify the county voter registration
system with a response that includes confirmation of the transaction, an
assigned unique identifier and registration status in NYSVoter. NYSVoter shall
assign a unique identifier to every voter that will remain with the voter for
their voting life.
