Elections

We are a Special Legislative District library holding our annual Budget Referendum and Trustee Election soon. It has come to my attention that we may be obligated to mail absentee ballots to certain people on a county supplied list. We have never done this before and with our small budget and staff time, this would presents a significant hardship for us to do this properly.

In legalese, this question is: Does the Early Mail Voting Act apply to special legislative district libraries?

The answer is: NO.

The Early Mail Voting Act applies to elections conducted by the following entities:

Our school district public library has offered early mail ballots for our 2024 and 2025 budget vote and trustee election. The school district is now telling us that the library is not obligated to offer early mail ballots and that only the school district is obligated to participate in early voting.

So, we have two questions:

Early mail ballots are required in most school district elections by the 2023 “New York Early Mail Voting Act” that went into effect January 1, 2024.[1]

We are a school district public library. Can the school require the library to be part of its budget vote if the library desires to be separate from it?

School district libraries are one of the 5 “types” of public library (the others are: association, Indian, municipal, and special district).[1]

Our trustee petitions to run for board seats are due 30 days before our election. That date happens to fall on a Sunday. What is the best practice for dates that fall on a Sunday? What is the best practice for dates that fall on a Saturday? Our petitions are due at the school, the school is closed on Saturday and Sunday.

WARNING! This answer applies only to school district public libraries.[1]

In addition: Caveat…[2] this answer will apply differently to different school district public libraries.

The Gov has put out his new proclamation in regards to votes. At [our school district public library] our vote has always been separate from the school vote but the gov's doc reads that our only option is to have the vote with the school or have it in Sept. Sept would not work since our fiscal year is July to June.

As a prelude, readers may want to take a look at an earlier COVID-19-era “Ask the Lawyer” about library elections postposed per Executive Order 202.12, which ends with this promise:

“If and when we get an update or “further directives,” we’ll post any update to this answer.”

[Note; the text of this question was edited to remove the precise dates of scheduled election and notice.]

Executive Order 202.13 states:

This question is from a school district public library.  Before answering it, I called the library director who sent it in.

Why?  Well, first, I wanted to introduce myself.  When a question has a lot of nuance and potential long-term ramifications, I like the member to know the answer comes from a real human being, not just a faceless attorney in Buffalo, NY.