The Text

Laws shall be made for ascertaining, by proper proofs, the citizens who shall be entitled to the right of suffrage hereby established, and for the registration of voters; which registration shall be completed at least ten days before each election. Such registration shall not be required for town and village elections except by express provision of law. In cities and villages having five thousand inhabitants or more, voters shall be registered upon personal application only; but voters not residing in such cities or villages shall not be required to apply in person for registration at the first meeting of the officers having charge of the registry of voters; however, voters who are in the actual military service of the state or of the United States, in the army, navy, air force or any branch thereof, or in the coast guard, or inmates of a veterans’ bureau hospital and voters who are unable to appear personally for registration because of illness or physical disability or because their duties, occupation or business require them to be outside the counties of their residence or, in the case of residents of the city of New York, their duties, occupation or business require them to he in a county outside such city; and a spouse, parent or child of such a voter in the actual military service or of such an inmate or of such a voter unable to appear personally for registration, accompanying or being with him or her, if a qualified voter and a resident of the same election district, and if outside the county of such election district, shall not be required to register personally. The number of such inhabitants shall he determined according to the latest census or enumeration, federal or state, showing the population of the city or village, except that the federal census shall be controlling unless such state enumeration, if any, shall have been taken and returned two or more years after the return of the preceding federal census.