N.Y. Election Law § 4-100: Election districts; creation and alteration

§ 4-100. Election districts; creation and alteration. 1. The State of

New York shall be divided into election districts which shall be the

basic political subdivision for purposes of registration and voting as

provided in this chapter.

2. The creation, consolidation, division or alteration of election

districts shall be done by the board of elections.

3. a. Each election district shall be in compact form and may not be

partly within and partly without a ward, town, city, a village which has

five thousand or more inhabitants and is wholly within one town, the

contiguous property of a college or university which contains three

hundred or more registrants who are registered to vote at any address on

such contiguous property, or a county legislative, assembly, senatorial

or congressional district. Except as provided in paragraph b of this

subdivision, election district boundaries, other than those boundaries

which are coterminous with the boundaries of those political

subdivisions and college or university properties mentioned in this

paragraph, must be streets, rivers, railroad lines or other permanent

characteristics of the landscape which are clearly visible to any person

without the need to use any technical or mechanical device. An election

district shall contain not more than nine hundred fifty registrants

(excluding registrants in inactive status) or, with the approval of the

county board of elections, not more than two thousand registrants

(excluding registrants in inactive status), but any election district

may be divided for the convenience of the voters.

b. An election district in a city or town may divide a block, provided

that the board of elections prepares an alphabetical list of all the

streets in such city or town with the election district for each such

street. If any such street is divided between two or more election

districts, then such list must contain the lowest and highest street

numbers in each such district and if the odd and even numbers on a

street are in different districts, such list must contain separate

listings for such odd and even numbers and if there are both odd and

even numbers in such different election districts, such list must

contain separate listings for such numbers. Copies of such lists shall

be filed and kept open to public inspection in the offices of such

board. One copy of each such list shall be delivered, upon request, to

the state board of elections and to a person or officer designated

jointly by the speaker of the assembly and the temporary president of

the senate. Surplus copies shall be sold at cost.

4. Any election district must be realigned when the total number of

registrants, excluding registrants in inactive status, at the time of

the preceding general election, exceeds the maximum number permitted by

this section by at least fifty registered voters.

5. Any creation, consolidation, division or alteration of election

districts in any calendar year shall be made on or before February

fifteenth, and shall take effect on April first, except that when

required by the creation or alteration of a political subdivision, other

than an election district, in which candidates are to be voted for at

the next election, such creation, consolidation, division or alteration

shall be made and shall take effect immediately upon creation or

alteration of such political subdivision. No such creation,

consolidation, division or alteration shall be made between February

twentieth of a calendar year ending in seven and December first of a

calendar year ending in zero unless required by the creation or

alteration of a political subdivision.