ters, other than the public copy, which signature copy shall be kept by an inspector of opposite political faith from the chairman, and shall be used at the polls on election day. The said thirty-seventh column, in a different copy of the register, being one of the copies to be used for poll-book entries, shall be reserved for the signature or number of identification statement of elector on the day of the general election. In the thirty-eighth column, being also the final or twentieth column in election districts in which the registration is not required to be personal, shall be entered, opposite the name of each elector, under the heading "registration remarks" the facts regarding challenges, oaths and other facts affecting such elector required to be recorded, including sex of elector, to be indicated by initials "M" or "F," for male or female, as the case may be. 3. Subject to the provisions of this section, the register shall be in substantially the following form: (See opposite page.)

Former § 155, subd. 1, repealed, and new § 155 added by L. 1919, ch. 504, in effect Oct. 1, 1919.

Derivation of former § 155: Election Law, § 32, pt. of subd. 1, as amended by. L. 1899, ch. 630, § 5; L. 1901, ch. 113, § 1; L. 1905, ch. 675, § 4, and L. 1908, ch. 521, § 1.

Amended by L. 1910, ch. 428; L. 1911, ch. 649; L. 1915, ch. 678; L. 1916, ch. 537; L. 1918, ch. 232, in effect Oct. 15, 1918.

Consolidators' note.-"The register shall be arranged in nineteen columns " changed to "twenty." L. 1905, ch. 675, inserted in additional column but failed to change "nineteen" to "twenty."

Cross-references.- Failure of house dweller to answer inquiries. See Penal Law, § 757 (part 5, post). Lodging house keepers in cities of the first class to keep registers between September 1 and November 15. See General City Law, §§ 110-115 (part 7, post). As to duty of lodging house and hotel keepers to keep register, see Election Law, § 480.

The duties of a board of inspectors of election in attending the registration of voters in order to ascertain who are qualified electors are not of an inquisitorial nature but purely ministerial, and the questions they are permitted to ask are for the sole purpose of testing the intending voter's qualifications. Koninski v. Vieser (1916), 97 Misc. 259, 161 N. Y. Supp. 129.

Requirement that elector sign his name in inspector's register at time of registration. The provision of the Election Law made applicable to cities only of a million or more inhabitants, requiring an elector to sign his name in the inspector's register at the time of registration is a reasonable and constitutional enactment. Ahern v. Elder (1909), 195 N. Y. 493, 88 N. E. 1059, aff❜g 130 App. Div. 900.

The distinction between greater and smaller cities and country places with respect to methods and details for safeguarding elections is necessary and proper and violates no constitutional restriction. The constitutional provision forbidding the enactment of private or local bills for the conduct of elections

is to be read in connection with that requiring the legislature to make laws "for ascertaining by proper proofs the citizens who shall be entitled to the right of suffrage." (State Const., art. 2, §§ 1, 4.) Ahern v. Elder (1909), 195 N. Y. 493, 88 N. E. 1059, aff'g 130 App. Div. 900.

So long as a law regulating the right of suffrage does not add to the qualifications required of electors by the constitution the legislative will is supreme. Ahern v. Elder (1909), 195 N. Y. 493, 88 N. E. 1059, aff'g 130 App. Div. 900. Prompting voters in answering questions. The provisions that no one shall prompt a voter in answering any question provided in this section refers only to prompting by another person present upon the immediate occasion when the elector is being read the prescribed questions and having his answers thereto written down at the time of registration or when offering to vote on election day. An elector is not prevented from gaining information required to answer such questions from other sources nor from referring to a written or printed memorandum. Rept. of Atty.-Gen. (1908), 403.

A native of Poland upon becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States of America cannot be deprived of his right to vote or participate at the next pirmary election because at the registration of voters he refused to give to the board of inspectors of election any further details as to the place of his nativity than to answer that he was born in Poland. Koninski v. Vieser (1916), 97 Misc. 259, 161 N. Y. Supp. 129.

Effect of destruction of "Identification Statements for Registration Day."If the method of identification of electors is impaired by reason of the failure of public officers to safeguard the identification registers, such impairment should not be allowed to disfranchise an otherwise qualified elector. Rept. of Atty.-Gen. (1908), 414.

The provision that Christian names shall be given in the signature of the registry book does not apply to signatures upon an independent certificate of nomination. Matter of Lynch (1919), 108 Misc. 668, 178 N. Y. Supp. 30.

§ 156. Form and contents of register in a city of over one million inhabitants.

This section shall apply only to election districts within a city having more than one million inhabitants. In all election districts in any such city, the register shall be arranged in thirtyone (at the general election preceding a presidential primary, thirty-two) columns. The leaves thereof shall be indexed from A to Z. The first column of the register shall be entitled "Registration No. of Voters," and in such column shall be entered at the time of the completion of the registration on the last day for registration, a number opposite the name of each person so registered, beginning with "one" opposite the first name entered in the page indexed A and continuing in numerical order to and including the last name entered upon the last page of such register. Columns two to twenty-six inclusive shall be filled in on each day of registration as each voter is registered, and the remaining columns at the times respectively provided. All such columns shall be appropriately entitled to indicate their pur

regis

pose.. In the second column shall be entered the date of the tration of each voter. In the third column shall be entered the surname of such persons in the alphabetical order of the first letter thereof, on the page bearing the index letter of such surname. In the fourth column shall be entered the christian or given name or names of such persons respectively. In the fifth and sixth columns shall be entered the residence number or other designation, and the name of the street or avenue of such residence or a brief description of the locality thereof. In the seventh column shall be entered the number of the floor or room occupied by the elector at the residence given by him. In the eighth column shall be entered the full name of the householder, tenant, subtenant or apartment lessee with whom the elector resides. In the ninth column shall be entered the elector's age, except that an elector over thirty years of age may state such age as over thirty" and have it so entered in the register. In the tenth column shall be entered, if the elector be a citizen by marriage, the length of time that the elector has been an inhabitant of the United States. The eleventh column shall be entitled "Married or single?" and the appropriate word shall be entered in said column. In the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth columns shall be entered the length of the elector's residence by years, months and days as the case may be, in the state, county and election district, respectively. In the fifteenth column shall be entered the country of his nativity, which shall mean the country, state or province of the elector's birth irrespective of his former political allegiance. In the sixteenth and seventeenth columns, if the voter be a naturalized citizen, shall be entered the date of the naturalization certificate under which the elector claims citizenship and the court issuing such naturalization certificate. If the elector be a woman claiming citizenship by marriage, there shall be entered in the sixteenth column the name of the person to whom married and if the husband was a naturalized citizen the date of his naturalization certificate, and in the seventeenth column the court issuing such certificate, if any. In the eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first columns shall be entered respectively the name of the state, the city or town, the street number and the name of the street or avenue of the residence of such person from which such person last registered or voted, and the year in which he last registered or voted. In the

*

66

twenty-second column shall be entered, if the elector is in business for himself or with others, the name under which he is so in business, or, if the elector is employed by some other person, the name of his present employer. If he is not in business and has no employment, the word "none" shall be entered, together with the name under which he was last in business or the name of his last employer, if any. In the twenty-third column shall be entered the street and number, or if it has no street number, a brief description of the location of the place, if any, where he is so in business or employed, or, if unemployed, the place, if any, where he was last in business or employed. The twenty-fourth column shall be reserved for the signature of any elector who registers personally, at the time of registration, or, in case the elector alleges his inability to write, for entering therein the number of the "identification statement for registration day" made by such elector as hereinafter provided. Above each horizontal line in the said twenty-fourth column shall be printed the words the foregoing statements are true" and the elector shall at the time of personal registration, sign his name by his own hand and without assistance, using an indelible pencil or pen and ink below such words on the horizontal line in the register of electors, which register shall be known as the "signature copy." Said signature copy shall be one of the registers, other than the public copy, which signature copy shall be kept by an inspector of opposite political faith from the chairman, and shall be used at the polls on election day. In the twenty-fifth column the person who has personally made the entries aforesaid in registering the voter shall sign his own initials in evidence thereof, which signature must be made at the same time that the voter is registered. In the twenty-sixth column shall be entered the number on the enrollment blank which is given to the voter to enable him to enroll in a party as provided in article two of this law. The twenty-seventh column shall be reserved for the entry of the name of the party, if any, in which the voter enrolls, or other statement, as provided in said article two of this law. The twenty-eighth column shall be entitled "No. of Stub, Election Day," and shall be reserved for entering therein the consecutive number on the stub of the official ballot or set of ballots voted by such voter on election day. The twenty-ninth column shall be entitled "No. of Stub, First Primary," and shall

be reserved for entering therein the consecutive number on the stub of the official ballot cast by such voter at the first official primary, whether spring or fall, following the general election for which such registration was made. The thirtieth column shall be entitled "No. of Stub, Second Primary," and shall be reserved for entering therein the consecutive number on the stub of the official ballot cast by such voter at the next succeeding official primary held prior to the next enrollment, or, should an unofficial primary be held, for the entry of the word "Yes" to indicate that such voter voted at such primary. In preparing the registers for the general election next preceding a presidential election an additional column (the thirty-first in such case) shall be included, entitled "No. of Stub, Third Primary," and shall be reserved for use at a third primary, if any, as above provided for a second primary in other years. The last column in the register shall be entitled "Remarks regarding challenges, oaths, and other facts required to be recorded," and in such column shall be entered, opposite the name of each voter, with the date of each such entry, such record of challenges, oaths, and other facts relating to him as this law requires to be entered in the register and are not otherwise provided for, including sex of elector, to be indicated by initials "M" or "F," for male or female, as the case may be. The pages of the register shall be consecutively numbered.

Former § 155, subd. 2, renumbered § 156 and amended by L. 1919, ch. 504, in effect Oct. 1, 1919.

§ 156-a. Provisions applicable to registers in all election districts where registration is required to be personal.

1. The provisions of this section shall apply to all election districts in which the registration of electors is required to be personal.

2. One of the inspectors of election at each place of registry on a day of registration shall be designated by the board of inspectors to ask each person presenting himself for registration the questions required by law, and it shall be the duty of such inspector to question such person respecting the information required to be entered on such day in any column of the register. It shall be the duty of each inspector to enter in ink in the appropriate column of the copy of the register made by him the answer given to each question by each elector.