NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A5292
SPONSOR: Sillitti TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the election law, in relation to the number of signa-
tures needed on certain designating petitions and independent nomi-
nations
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To decrease the number of signatures required for designation and inde-
pendent nominations for town council districts.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends section 6-136 of the election law, by adding a new
subdivision (m), decreasing the number of signatures needed for desig-
nating petitions for town council districts.
Section 2 amends section 6-142 of the election law, by adding a new
subdivision (j), decreasing the number of signatures needed for inde-
pendent nominating petitions.
Section 3 provides that this act shall take effect immediately.
JUSTIFICATION:
In some instances, a candidate wishing to pursue office in a Town Coun-
cil District must collect the same number of signatures that a person
running for State Senate or Assembly might have to collect for their
designating or independent nominating petition. This arises in cases
where the Town Council District spans more than one State Senate or
Assembly District. This bill will decrease the threshold of signatures
required for all Town Council Districts, regardless of whether they span
more than one State Senate or Assembly District, to 500 signatures to be
consistent with the threshold for other Town Council Districts that are
within the same Senate or Assembly District.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New Bill
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
None to the state.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5292
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 7, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. SILLITTI -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Election Law
AN ACT to amend the election law, in relation to the number of signa-
tures needed on certain designating petitions and independent nomi-
nations
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraphs (k) and (l) of subdivision 2 of section 6-136 of
2 the election law, as amended by chapter 79 of the laws of 1992, are
3 amended and a new paragraph (m) is added to read as follows:
4 (k) For any other office to be filled by the voters of a political
5 subdivision containing more than one assembly district, county or other
6 political subdivision, not to exceed the aggregate of the signatures
7 required for the subdivisions or parts of subdivisions so contained;
8 [and]
9 (l) For any county legislative district, five hundred signatures[.];
10 and
11 (m) For town council districts, five hundred signatures or five per
12 centum, as determined by the preceding enrollment, of the then enrolled
13 voters of the party residing within the political unit in which the
14 office or position is to be voted for (excluding inactive voters),
15 whichever is less.
16 § 2. Paragraph (i) of subdivision 2 of section 6-142 of the election
17 law, as amended by chapter 79 of the laws of 1992, is amended and a new
18 paragraph (j) is added to read as follows:
19 (i) for any office to be filled by the voters of any political subdi-
20 vision contained within another political subdivision except as herein
21 otherwise provided, not to exceed the number of signatures required for
22 the larger subdivision[.]; and
23 (j) for town council districts, five hundred signatures or five per
24 centum of the total number of votes cast for governor at the last guber-
25 natorial election in such unit, excluding blank and void votes, whichev-
26 er is less.
27 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06985-01-3
