Election Law § 5-904 · Title 9. Automatic Voter Registration
Presumption of innocent authorized error
Text — Law content up to date as of October 30, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 5-904. Presumption of innocent authorized error. 1. Notwithstanding subdivision six of section 5-210 of this article or any other law to the contrary, a person who is ineligible to vote who fails to decline to register or pre-register to vote in accordance with the provisions of this section and did not willfully and knowingly seek to register or pre-register to vote knowing that the person is not eligible to do so:
(a) shall not be guilty of any crime as the result of the applicant's failure to make such declination;
(b) shall be deemed to have been registered or pre-registered with official authorization; and
(c) such act may not be considered as evidence of a claim to citizenship.
2. Notwithstanding subdivision six of section 5-210 of this article or any other law to the contrary, a person who is ineligible to vote who fails to decline to register or pre-register to vote in accordance with the provisions of this section, who then either votes or attempts to vote in an election held after the effective date of that person's registration, and who did not willfully and knowingly seek to register or pre-register to vote knowing that the person is not eligible to do so, and did not subsequently vote or attempt to vote knowing that the person is not eligible to do so:
(a) shall not be guilty of any crime as the result of the applicant's failure to make such declination and subsequent vote or attempt to vote;
(b) shall be deemed to have been registered or pre-registered with official authorization; and
(c) such act may not be considered as evidence of a claim to citizenship.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Law content up to date as of October 30, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
- Official file
- https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/ELN5-904
- Text hash
- sha256 36f05abdb3db8c8faf1042c6fd7fbdb554fe72baf1d18e10172781b858e24c7a
- Composed by
- gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.