the sixth Wednesday before the general election in such year, each of which shall be compact in form, wholly within the town or ward, and shall contain respectively as near as may be, four hundred voters. Such duty shall be performed in the counties of Monroe and Niagara by the commissioner of elections. No such ward or town shall be again divided into election districts until, at some general election, the number of votes cast in one or more districts thereof shall exceed four hundred and fifty; and in such case the redivision shall apply only to the town or ward in which such district is situated; provided, however, that in cities of the third class the common council, or other board or body charged with like duties, by resolution duly adopted at the time and to take effect as hereinbefore provided for the division of wards into election districts, may direct that wards in such city having five hundred and fifty voters or less shall not be divided but shall constitute one election district; or, that wards having five hundred voters or less, which have been divided into election districts pursuant to the foregoing provisions of this section, shall be consolidated into one election district. Such resolution shall fix and determine the polling place for such election district or consolidated districts and in all such cases it shall be the duty of the common council, or other board or body charged with like duties, to furnish such polling place with one booth for each seventy-five voters in such election district or consolidated districts, as shown by the last preceding registration of voters in such ward. If any part of a city. shall be within a town, the town board shall divide into election districts only that part of the town which is outside of the city. No election district including any part of a city shall include any part of a town outside of a city.

A town or ward of a city containing less than five hundred voters, or an election district of a town containing less than four hundred voters may, in any year not later than the first day of July, be divided into election districts by the board or other body charged with such duty, to take effect on the sixth Wednesday before the general election in such year, when, in the judgment of such board or body, the convenience of the voters shall be promoted thereby. Upon the creation, division or alteration of an election district outside of a city, and on or before September first the town board shall appoint four inspectors of election for each election district so

created, divided or altered, to take effect on or before the first day of registration thereafter and not earlier than the sixth Wednesday before the next general election, who shall be equally divided between the two parties entitled to representation on boards of inspetors. If the creation, division or alteration of an election district is rendered necessary by the creation, division or alteration of a town, ward or city or rendered necessary or occasioned by the division of a county into assembly districts after a reapportionment by the legislature of members of assembly, such creation, division or alteration of an election district shall be made and shall take effect immediately; and inspectors of election for the new election district as so created, divided or altered shall be appointed, in the manner provided by law, a reasonable time before the next official primary or meeting for registration and such appointments shall take effect immediately. If a town shall include a city, or a portion of a city, only such election districts as are wholly outside of a city shall be deemed election districts of the town, except for the purpose of town meetings.

The board of elections of the city of New York and county of Erie shall divide the cities of New York and Buffalo, respectively, into election districts on or before the first day of July in any year whenever necessary so to do as herein provided, to take effect on the sixth Wednesday before the general election in such year. Each election district in the counties within the city of New York shall contain, so far as possible, four hundred and fifty voters, provided, however, that any election district containing less than two hundred and twenty-five voters, in such counties made necessary by the crossing of congressional lines with other political divisions, may be consolidated with a continguous election district in any year when no representative in congress is to be voted for in such district. Such election districts so established in the city of New York shall not again be changed until at some general election the number of registered voters therein shall exceed six hundred, except where changes are made necessary by a change in the boundaries of congressional, senate, assembly, aldermanic or municipal court districts or ward lines, provided, however, that when the number of registered voters in an election district shall, in any year, be less than three hundred and fifty, such district may be consolidated with contiguous election dis

tricts in the discretion of said board of elections. In the city of New York each election district shall be compact in form, entirely within an assembly district and numbered in consecutive order therein respectively. In the year of any decennial reapportionment the board of elections of the city of New York shall rearrange the election districts throughout the city within assembly district lines as constituted pursuant to such reapportionment, to conform as to the number of voters to the provisions of this section, which rearrangement shall take effect before the fall primary in that year; and the appointment of inspectors of election for such election district, as altered or newly created, shall be made and shall take effect a reasonable time before such primary.

No election district shall contain portions of two counties, or two senate or assembly districts.

Derivation: Election Law, § 8, as amended by L. 1897, ch. 379, § 3; L. 1900, ch. 648, § 1; L. 1901, ch. 95, § 3; L. 1903, ch. 44, § 1; L. 1905, ch. 643, § 3, and ch. 675, § 1; L. 1906, ch. 570, § 1; L. 1907, ch. 472, § 1.

Amended by L. 1914, ch. 244; L. 1916, ch. 537; L. 1917, ch. 703; L. 1918, ch. 323, in effect Apr. 24, 1918.

Consolidators' note.- Election Law, § 8, as amended by L. 1897, ch. 379, § 3; L. 1900, ch. 648, § 1; L. 1901, ch. 95, § 3; L. 1903, ch. 644, § 1; L. 1905, ch. 643, § 3, and ch. 675, § 1; L. 1906, ch. 570, § 1; L. 1907, ch. 472, § 1. A provision as to the bi-partisian character of the board similar in effect to that omitted from new section 419 is here changed in a similar manner and for this same reason.

Cross-references.- Division of towns into joint election districts for purpose of holding town meetings. See Town Law, § 65 (part 8, post). Number of voters in election district where voting machine is used. Election Law, ŝ

419.

Section is not mandatory with reference to the date on which the alteration, division or creation shall be made. Report of Atty.-Gen. (1895), 215. Power of town to change election districts. Report of Atty.-Gen (1903), 412.

Where a town contains more than 400 registered voters it would be illegal for the town board to reduce the number of election districts to one. Report of Atty.-Gen. (1894), 76.

Effect of locating polling place outside of district.-All that the Constitution required is that an elector must vote at the polling place designated by law for casting the vote of the district where he resides, and the validity of his vote is not affected by the fact that the place is located outside the boundary line of the district. People ex rel. Lardner v. Carson (1898), 155 N. Y. 491, -aff'g 86 Hun 617, 35 N. Y. Supp. 1114.

In general. As to apportionment of election districts, see Matter of Baird (1894), 142 N. Y. 523, aff'g 75 Hun 545, 27 N. Y. Supp. 525; Matter of Smith (1895), 90 Hun 568, 36 N. Y. Supp. 40, rev'd on another point 148 N. Y. 187.

§ 296-a. Special provision as to election districts in certain congressional districts.

If an election district be partly within and partly without either the seventh, eighth, twenty-first or twenty-second congressional districts, the board of elections of the city of New York, before the days fixed by law for revising and correcting registers for a special election called or to be called to elect representatives to congress therein before May first, of such year, shall divide such election district into two districts, each within the proper congressional district, or annex the part within any such congressional district to one or more adjoining election districts therein, to take ' effect immediately. Any election district so created, or to which a part of an election district is annexed, shall continue as an election district until changed pursuant to law. Appointments of inspectors for a new election district, if any, created pursuant to this section shall take effect immediately.

Added by L. 1918, ch. 8, in effect Feb. 19, 1918.

§ 296-b. Readjustment of election districts in the year nineteen hundred and eighteen.

Added by L. 1918, ch. 323, in effect Apr. 24, 1918. See Part IA, Special Provisions of Election Law for Year 1918, post, p. 288a.

§ 297. Abolition, consolidation or changing of election districts

in towns.

If at a general election at which a governor is elected, the number of votes cast for governor in an election district in any town be less than two hundred, the town board of the town may, if such town contains two election districts, abolish the division of the town into election districts, or if the town contain more than two election districts, may annex the territory of such district to one or more of the other districts therein, in such manner as will best promote the convenience of the voters; but no district shall be abolished pursuant to this section if thereby in case of the abolition of election districts, the number of voters in the town will exceed five hundred, as indicated by the last preceding vote for governor or other available sources of information, or thereby in the case of the abolition of an election district and its annexation to one or more other districts, the number of voters in any new district so created will exceed four hundred, as so indicated.

An

alteration of election districts, pursuant to this section, must be made on or before July first in any year, to take effect on the sixth Wednesday before the general election in such year. If the election districts in a town are abolished pursuant to this section, the town board shall, on or before September first, appoint from the inspectors of election in such town four inspectors of election for the town as an election district, to take effect on or before the first day of registration thereafter and not earlier than the sixth Wednesday preceding the next general election, who shall be equally divided between the two parties entitled to representation on boards of inspectors.

If a town has been divided into three or more election districts, and if at any general election at which a governor is elected, the number of votes cast for governor in any district in such town does not exceed two hundred, the town board of such town may on or before the first day of August succeeding, if it deems that the convenience of voters will be promoted thereby, divide such town into such number of election districts, to take effect on the sixth Wednesday before the next general election, as it deems desirable, or change the boundaries of the existing districts, in such manner that no district shall contain more than four hundred voters as indicated by the last preceding vote for governor or other available sources of information. If, in pursuance of this section, the boundaries of an election district in such town should be changed, or a new election district is created, by the consolidation of two or more districts or parts of districts, the town board shall on or before September first appoint for each such district so created, or changed, four inspectors of election, to take effect on or before the first day of registration thereafter and not earlier than the sixth Wednesday preceding the next general election, who shall be equally divided between the two parties entitled to representation on boards of inspectors. Such inspectors of election shall hold office until their successors are regularly appointed in such election districts, in pursuance of law.

Derivation: Election Law, § 8-a, as added by L. 1906, ch. 159, § 1, and § 8-b, as added by L. 1907, ch. 470, § 1.

Amended by L. 1914, ch. 244; L. 1916, ch. 537; L. 1918, ch. 323, in effect Apr. 24, 1918.

Consolidators' note.- Two provisions as to the bi-partisan character of the board similar in effect to that omitted from new section 419 are here changed in a similar manner and for the same reason.