N.Y. Alcoholic Beverage Control Law § 142: Local option for cities

§ 142. Local option for cities. 1. Not less than sixty days nor more

than eighty days before the general election in the year nineteen

hundred thirty-five in any city, and before any subsequent general

election in the city at which the submission of the questions

hereinafter stated is authorized by this article, a petition signed by

electors of the city to a number amounting to twenty-five per centum of

the votes cast in the city for governor at the then last preceding

gubernatorial election, requesting the submission at such election to

the electors of the city of the questions contained in section one

hundred forty-one, substituting however the word "city" for "town," may

be filed with the city clerk or, in the city of New York, with the board

of elections.

(a) Opposite and on the right of the name of each elector signing such

petition shall be written his residence address by house number and

street name, if any, and otherwise by an appropriate designation, and

the date of his signing. Each signature shall be made personally by the

one whose name is signed and not by another. No signature shall be valid

or counted as to which any of such requirements is not complied with,

nor as to which the date of signing is more than four months prior to

the day of the election. No signature shall be withdrawn after the

petition is filed.

(b) At the bottom of each sheet of the petition shall be a statement,

signed by a duly qualified elector of the city, with his residence

address, stating that every signature on that sheet of the petition is

genuine and that to the best of his knowledge and belief every person so

signing was at the time thereof a qualified elector of such city, that

their respective residences are correctly stated therein and that each

signer signed the same on the date set opposite his name. Such statement

shall be sworn to before an officer authorized to administer oaths

within such city.

(c) The same petition may be either in one document or prepared and

signed in two or more documents. Such documents shall constitute one

petition and be filed as a whole.

(d) The petition shall also appoint a committee upon whom or any of

its members a summons, order or notice may be served in any proceeding

respecting the validity of the petition or of an election held pursuant

thereto, and shall also designate the chairman of such committee. The

residence address of each member of the committee shall be stated. Such

committee may fill a vacancy in its chairmanship or in its membership,

and notice of any such change shall promptly be filed with the officer

with whom the petition is required to be filed; provided, however, that

failure to file such notice shall not invalidate any proceeding under

this chapter.

(e) Upon the due filing of such a petition, complying with the

foregoing provisions, such questions shall be submitted in accordance

therewith. If the petition be filed with the city clerk, he shall

within five days from the filing thereof, prepare and file in the office

of the board of elections of the county, as defined by the election law,

a certified copy thereof.

2. The method and manner of submission, preparation and provision of

ballot labels, balloting by voting machine and conducting the election,

canvassing the result and making and filing the returns and all other

procedure with reference to the submission of and action upon any such

question shall be the same as in the case of any other proposition to be

submitted to the electors of a city at a general election as provided by

law.

3. If a majority of the votes cast shall be in the negative on any or

all of the questions, no person shall, after such election, sell

alcoholic beverages in such city contrary to such vote or to the

provisions of this chapter; provided, however, that the result of such

vote shall not shorten the term for which any license may have been

lawfully issued under this chapter or affect the rights of the licensee

thereunder; and no person shall after such vote apply for or receive a

license to sell alcoholic beverages at retail in such city contrary to

such vote, until, by referendum as hereinafter provided for, such sale

shall again become lawful.