Derivation: Election Law, pt. of § 18, as amended by L. 1897, ch. 379, § 6; L. 1899, ch. 467, § 1, and ch. 630, § 3; L. 1900, ch. 381, § 2, and ch. 711, § 1; L. 1901, ch. 95, § 7. Amended by L. 1915, ch. 678, in effect May 22, 1915; L. 1918, ch. 323; L 1919, ch. 504, in effect May 9, 1919. Cross-reference. As to compensation of election officers in towns, see note to Election Law, § 311. Compensation of town clerk.- Under this section the town board has the right to fix a reasonable compensation for services of the town clerk in carrying out the provisions of this act. When they have determined the amount of such compensation, the town board of audit must audit the claim and cannot refuse on the ground that the allowance was unreasonable. People ex rel. Gedney v. Sippell (1907), 116 App. Div. 753, 102 N. Y. Supp. 69. § 320. Delivery of election laws to clerks, boards and election officers. The secretary of state shall at least sixty days before each general election cause to be prepared a compilation of the election law with explanatory notes and instructions, properly indexed, and procure the same to be printed by the legislative printer, and transmit to the board of elections of each county, and to the board of elections of the city of New York, located in the borough of Manhattan, and to the branch office of the board of elections in each of the other boroughs of the city of New York, à sufficient number of copies thereof to furnish one such copy to each member of each such board and to each of said branch offices of the board of elections of the city of New York and one to each county, town, village and city clerk and to each election officer in any such county and said boroughs, together with such number of extra copies as may in his judgment be necessary to replace copies lost or mutilated before delivery thereof to election officers. The board of elections of each county, except those counties the whole of which is included within the city of New York, shall forthwith transmit one of such copies to each of such officers in such county, and the board of elections of the city of New York shall cause to be delivered one of such copies to each of such officers in the city of New York. Each copy so received by each such officer shall belong to the office of the person receiving it. Every incumbent of the office shall preserve such copy during his term of office and upon the expiration of his term or removal from office deliver it to his successor. The secretary of state shall also transmit to the state superintendent of elections a sufficient number of such copies to furnish fifty copies to the superintendent and two copies to each deputy. Derivation: Election Law, § 19, as amended by L. 1897, ch. 379, § 7; L. 1899, ch. 630, § 4; L. 1901, ch. 95, § 8; L. 1905, ch. 643, § 6. Amended by L. 1916, ch. 537; L. 1918, ch. 323, in effect Apr. 24, 1918. Constitutional-The provision of this section authorizing the secretary of state to print a compilation of the Election Laws does not violate the provision of the United States Constitution prohibiting the passage of laws impairing the obligation of contracts. People ex rel. Weed-Parsons Printing Company v. Palmer (1896), 18 Misc. 103, 41 N. Y. Supp. 878. ARTICLE 9. BALLOTS AND STATIONERY. Section 330. Official ballots for elections. 331. Classification of ballots; form of ballots for candidates. 332. Form of ballot for questions submitted. 333. Sample ballots, instruction cards and stationery. 333a. Additional sample ballots in the year nineteen hundred and fourteen; distribution of such ballots. 334. Blank forms for election officers. 335. Form of ballot clerk's return. 336. Description of tally sheets. 337. Forms of return and tally of votes cast for presidential electors. 338. Forms of return and tally of votes for officers other than presidential electors. 339. Forms of return and tally of votes upon questions submitted. 340. Number of official ballots. 341. Officers providing ballots and stationery. 342. Public inspection of ballots. 343. Distribution of ballots and stationery. § 330. Official ballots for elections. Official ballots shall be provided at public expense at each polling place for every election at which public officers are to be elected directly by the people, except an election of school district officers or school officers of a city or village at which no other public officer is to be elected, and except an election of officers of a fire district outside of cities and incorporated villages, at which excepted elections any form of ballot which may be adopted and used by the meeting at which such election shall be had shall be legal. Derivation: Election Law, § 80, as amended by L. 1897, ch. 609, § 1. Cross-References. Expense of ballots. Election Law, § 318. Officers providing ballots. Election Law, § 341. Misconduct in relation to official ballots. Penal Law, § 760 (part 5, post). §331. Classification of ballots; form of ballots for candidates. 1. General provisions. There shall be five kinds of ballots, 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 and not otherwise. Ballots for general officers shall contain the names of all candidates except presidential electors. All ballots shall be printed in black ink, on book paper of good quality free from ground wood, five hun dred 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 hereinafter provided. On the back of the stub, immediately above the center of the indorsement on the back of the ballot hereinafter referred to, shall be printed "No. ... ," the blank to be filled with the consecutive number of the ballot, 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 being properly filled and the numbers running from one upward, consecutively: Official ballot (for Presidential Electors). ... . Assembly District (ward or town). Election District. (Date of Election.) (Facsimile of the signature of officer causing the ballot to be printed.) Each ballot shall be printed in sections, on which the candidates' names, emblems and political designations, or the constitutional amendment, or other question submitted, with the voting squares, and other requisite matter shall be boxed in by heavy black lines in the manner indicated in the illustration of the ballot hereinafter provided. 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 an exactly rectangular ballot, blank sections may be used. On each 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. In all ballots there shall be a perpendicular column of these squares, and in the ballot for general officers, in the case of a candidate for governor or member of assembly nominated by two or more political organizations, the additional squares arranged horizontally as provided in subdivision three of this section. 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. Each political organization whose party name contains more than eleven letters shall select an abbreviated form thereof containing not more than eleven letters which shall be used upon the ballot whenever the necessities of space shall so require. The abbreviated form shall be certified at the same time and in the same manner as party names are required to be certified. 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. In conformity with the foregoing provisions and with the provisions of subdivision three of this section the face of the ballot for general officers shall be substantially in the following form: (Form omitted.) 2. 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 shall also be provided in |