§ 104. Ballots and returns; absentee voting. L. 1922, ch. 588. Source.-Former Election Law (L. 1909, ch. 22), §§ 58, 331; new, in part. § 104. Classification and form of official ballots other than primary ballots. For elections other than primary elections, there shall be five kinds of ballots to be used by the voters who appear personally to vote, called respectively ballots for presidential electors, ballots for general officers, ballots upon constitutional amendments and questions submitted, ballots upon town propositions, and ballots upon town appropriations, which shall be used for the purposes which their names severally indicate. Ballots for general officers shall contain the names of all candidates except presidential electors. Official ballots shall be printed in black ink, on book paper of good quality free from ground wood, five hundred sheets. of which twenty-five by thirty-eight inches in size shall weigh sixty pounds and shall test for that size and weight at least twenty points on a Morrison tester. They shall be rectangular in shape, not less than eight inches in width and twelve inches in length, and shall have a margin extending beyond any printing thereon. All ballots of the same kind for the same polling place shall be of precisely the same size, quality and shade of paper, and of precisely the same kind and arrangement of type and tint of ink. A different, but in each case uniform, kind of type shall be used for printing the names of candidates, the titles of offices, political designations, and the reading form of constitutional amendments and other questions and propositions submitted. The names of candidates shall be printed in capital letters in black-faced type not less than one-eighth nor more than three-sixteenths of an inch in height. Each ballot shall be printed on the same sheet with a stub and shall be separated therefrom by a horizontal line of perforations extending across the entire width of the ballot. On the face of the stub shall be printed the instructions to voters. On the back of the stub immediately above the center of the indorsement on the back of the ballot, shall be printed "No......" the blank to be filled with the consecutive number of ballots, beginning with "No. 1," and increasing in regular numerical order. On the back of the ballot, below the line of perforations, just to the right of the center, and outside when the ballot is folded, shall be printed the following indorsement, the blanks properly filled: Official Ballot for General Officers (or as the case may be). Assembly District (or ward or town). (Date of Election.) (Facsimile of the signature of officer or officers providing the ballot.) Each such ballot shall be printed in sections, on which the candidates' names, emblems and political designations, or the constitutional amend L. 1922, ch. 588. Ballots and returns; absentee voting. § 105. ment, or other questions submitted, with the voting squares, and other requisite matter shall be boxed in by heavy black lines. The voting squares and the spaces occupied by emblems shall have a depth and width of five-sixteenths of an inch. In case the sections shall be so numerous as to make the ballot unwieldy if they are printed in one column, they may be printed in as many columns as shall be necessary, and in that case, in order to produce a rectangular ballot, blank sections may be used. On the ballot shall be voting squares in which voters may make their voting marks. All voting squares shall be bounded by heavy black lines, the perpendicular lines to be not less than one-sixteenth of an inch wide. On all ballots there shall be a perpendicular column of these squares. No voting squares shall be provided in the blank spaces for written names. The ballots bearing the same number at the same election shall constitute a set of ballots. The name of each political organization whose party name contains more than eleven letters shall be printed on the ballot, whenever the necessities of space shall so require, in an abbreviated form containing not more than fifteen letters. In printing the names of candidates whose full names contain sixteen letters or more not more than one name other than the surname shall be printed in full, and each candidate may indicate in writing to the officer or officers charged with the duty of preparing the ballots the form in which, subject to this restriction, his name shall be printed. No emblem shall occupy a space longer in any direction than the voting square to which it relates. Source.-Former Election Law (L. 1909, ch. 22), § 331, subd. 1, unchanged. In preparing ballots for election, commissioners or boards of election act in a ministerial capacity only, and have no discretion as to the form of the ballot or designation of the officers, and hence a candidate for justice of the Supreme Court cannot compel said commissioners to provide ballots in which each candidate is in a section or class by himself. Matter of Burr v. Voorhis (1920), 229 N. Y. 382, 128 N. E. 220, affg. 192 App. Div. 909, 182 N. Y. Supp. 917. § 105. Ballots for general officers.-Upon ballots for general officers the names of all candidates for any one office shall be printed in a separate section. The sections shall be in the customary order of the offices and shall be numbered from one upward by a numeral printed in the upper right hand corner of the section. In printing the names of candidates precedence shall be given to the candidate or candidates of the party which polled the highest number of votes for governor at the last preceding election for such officer, and so on. At the top of each section in the center shall be printed on one line the title of the office. On the same line, to the left of such title and immediately above the emblems and voting squares, there shall be printed a direction as to the number of candidates for whom a vote may be cast, which direction shall be punctuated by an exclamation point. If two or more candidates are nominated for the same office for § 105. Ballots and returns; absentee voting. L. 1922, ch. 588. different terms, the term for which each is nominated shall be printed as a part of the title of the office. At the bottom of each section as many separate spaces as there are candidates to be elected shall be left blank in which the voter may write the names of any candidates not on the ballot. Except as herein otherwise provided, with respect to a candidate for the office of governor or of member of assembly who is nominated by more than one political organization, there shall be printed on each line below the top in the following order, from left to right, the party emblem, the voting square, the candidate's name and the name of the party by which he is nominated. The width of the enclosure containing the name of the candidate and of such party shall not exceed three and one-half inches. In any case where a candidate for public office is nominated by more than one political organization, the party names and emblems shall appear in the order of priority based on the relative number of votes cast for governor by each organization at the preceding election of a governor. In any such case, the emblems shall be arranged horizontally before the voting square, beginning next to the square immediately preceding the name of the candidate with the emblem of the party casting the highest number of such votes. When any candidate for the office of governor or member of assembly is nominated by more than one political organization, there shall be one voting square, in the same horizontal row as the emblems, to the right of each emblem before the name of a candidate so nominated for such office. The final letter of the party name or names shall be close to the right hand perpendicular line of the box, and any space between the candidate's name and his party name or names shall be filled with dotted or waved lines. On the stub at the top of the ballot shall be printed in heavy black type the following instructions: L. 1922, ch. 588. Ballots and returns; absentee voting. § 106. INSTRUCTIONS. 1. Mark only with a pencil having black lead. 2. To vote for a candidate whose name is printed on this ballot make a single cross X mark in one of the squares to the right of an emblem opposite his name. 3. To vote for a person whose name is not printed on this ballot write his name on a blank line under the names of the candidates for that office. 4. Any other mark than the cross X mark used for the purpose of voting or any erasure made on this ballot is unlawful. 5. If you tear, or deface, or wrongly mark this ballot, return it and obtain another. The following illustrations are here given as a guide in printing the sections. Source.-Former Election Law (L. 1909, ch. 22), § 331, subd. 3, substantially unchanged. § 106. Ballots for questions submitted.-The reading form of each proposed constitutional amendment or other question submitted shall be printed in a separate section. At the left of each question shall appear two voting squares, one above the other, each at least one-half inch square. At the left of the upper square shall be printed the word "Yes," and at the left of the lower square shall be printed the word "No." On the stub at the top of the ballot shall be printed in heavy black type the following instructions: § 107. Ballots and returns; absentee voting. L. 1922, ch. 588. INSTRUCTIONS. 1. 2. Mark only with a pencil having black lead. To vote "Yes" make a cross X mark in the square opposite the word "Yes." 3. To vote "No," make a cross X mark in the square opposite the word "No." 4. Any other mark than the cross X mark used for the purpose of voting or any erasure made on this ballot is unlawful. 5. If you tear, or deface, or wrongly mark this ballot, return it and obtain another. The questions shall be numbered consecutively on the face of the ballot. So far as possible the ballots upon town propositions shall conform to the directions herein contained respecting ballots on constitutional amendments and questions submitted. All ballots for the submission of town propositions for raising or appropriating money for town purposes, or for incurring a town liability, to be voted at any town meeting in any town, shall be separate from all other ballots for the submission of other propositions or questions to the voters. of such town to be voted at the same town meeting or election. Such ballots shall be indorsed "ballot upon town appropriations." Source.-Former Election Law (L. 1909, ch. 22), § 332, unchanged. § 107. Ballots for presidential electors.-Upon ballots for presidential electors the names of the presidential electors of each party shall be printed in one column indicating: First. The electors at large, whose names shall be arranged in the alphabetical order of the surnames; and Second. The electors of each district, whose names shall be arranged in the numerical order of their district. The columns shall be parallel to each other and shall be separated by heavy black lines. In addition to the party columns a blank column with lines for writing also shall be provided in which voters may write the names of candidates for presidential electors not on the ballot and which shall be sufficient to contain as many names as there are electors to be chosen. It shall be designated as the blank column and shall contain no voting spaces. At the head of each party column shall be printed the party emblem; below this a blank circle three-quarters of an inch in diameter; below this the party name in large type; below this the names of the candidates for president and vice-president; and below this a heavy line dividing the heading from the names of the presidential electors. Above the name of the first elector shall be printed the words "presidential electors." The names of the presidential electors shall be printed in spaces one-quarter of an inch in depth, except that the first spaces containing also the words "presidential electors' shall be half an inch in depth. |