2023 New York Laws › ABC - Alcoholic Beverage Control › Article 9 - Local Option › 142 - Local Option for Cities.

§ 142. Local  option  for cities. 1. Not less than sixty days nor more
than eighty days before  the  general  election  in  the  year  nineteen
hundred  thirty-five  in  any  city,  and  before any subsequent general
election  in  the  city  at  which  the  submission  of  the   questions
hereinafter  stated  is authorized by this article, a petition signed by
electors of the city to a number amounting to twenty-five per centum  of
the  votes  cast  in  the  city  for governor at the then last preceding
gubernatorial election, requesting the submission at  such  election  to
the  electors  of  the  city  of  the questions contained in section one
hundred forty-one, substituting however the word "city" for "town,"  may
be filed with the city clerk or, in the city of New York, with the board
of elections.
(a) Opposite and on the right of the name of each elector signing such
petition  shall  be  written  his  residence address by house number and
street name, if any, and otherwise by an  appropriate  designation,  and
the  date of his signing. Each signature shall be made personally by the
one whose name is signed and not by another. No signature shall be valid
or counted as to which any of such requirements is  not  complied  with,
nor  as  to  which the date of signing is more than four months prior to
the day of the election. No  signature  shall  be  withdrawn  after  the
petition is filed.
(b)  At the bottom of each sheet of the petition shall be a statement,
signed by a duly qualified elector  of  the  city,  with  his  residence
address,  stating  that every signature on that sheet of the petition is
genuine and that to the best of his knowledge and belief every person so
signing was at the time thereof a qualified elector of such  city,  that
their  respective  residences are correctly stated therein and that each
signer signed the same on the date set opposite his name. Such statement
shall be sworn to before  an  officer  authorized  to  administer  oaths
within such city.
(c)  The  same  petition may be either in one document or prepared and
signed in two or more documents. Such  documents  shall  constitute  one
petition and be filed as a whole.
(d)  The  petition  shall also appoint a committee upon whom or any of
its members a summons, order or notice may be served in  any  proceeding
respecting  the validity of the petition or of an election held pursuant
thereto, and shall also designate the chairman of  such  committee.  The
residence  address of each member of the committee shall be stated. Such
committee may fill a vacancy in its chairmanship or in  its  membership,
and  notice  of any such change shall promptly be filed with the officer
with whom the petition is required to be filed; provided, however,  that
failure  to  file  such notice shall not invalidate any proceeding under
this chapter.
(e) Upon the due  filing  of  such  a  petition,  complying  with  the
foregoing  provisions,  such  questions shall be submitted in accordance
therewith.   If the petition be filed with  the  city  clerk,  he  shall
within five days from the filing thereof, prepare and file in the office
of the board of elections of the county, as defined by the election law,
a certified copy thereof.
2.  The  method and manner of submission, preparation and provision of
ballot labels, balloting by voting machine and conducting the  election,
canvassing  the  result  and making and filing the returns and all other
procedure with reference to the submission of and action upon  any  such
question shall be the same as in the case of any other proposition to be
submitted to the electors of a city at a general election as provided by
law.
3.  If a majority of the votes cast shall be in the negative on any or
all of the  questions,  no  person  shall,  after  such  election,  sell

alcoholic  beverages  in  such  city  contrary  to  such  vote or to the
provisions of this chapter; provided, however, that the result  of  such
vote  shall  not  shorten  the  term for which any license may have been
lawfully  issued under this chapter or affect the rights of the licensee
thereunder; and no person shall after such vote apply for or  receive  a
license  to  sell alcoholic beverages at retail in such city contrary to
such vote, until, by referendum as hereinafter provided for,  such  sale
shall again become lawful.