2023 New York Laws
ACG - Alternative County Government
Article 14 - Submission and Adoption
656 - Submission of Question; Adoption; Effect.

§  656.  Submission  of  question;  adoption;  effect. 1. The board of
  elections shall cause such question to be submitted to the  electors  of
  the county in the manner provided in the election law. The provisions of
  section  one  hundred two of the county law, so far as applicable, shall
  apply also to the manner of submission of questions under the provisions
  of this chapter.
2. No alternative form of county government or variation thereof shall
  become operative in a county unless adopted by receiving a majority  (a)
  of the total votes cast thereon in the county at large, (b) of the total
  votes  cast  thereon  within  the area outside of cities, and (c) of the
  total votes cast thereon within the area of any  cities  in  the  county
  considered  as  one  unit.  The  disapproval of any question proposing a
  variation shall not otherwise affect or invalidate an  alternative  form
  of county government approved at the same election.  The approval of any
  question  proposing  a  variation of a form of government not already in
  effect at the time of submission  shall  be  of  no  effect  unless  the
  alternative form of government is also approved at the same election.
3.  If  any  such  form of government provides for the transfer of any
  functions of local government to or from the cities, the  towns  or  the
  villages  of  the  county,  the  alternative  form  of county government
  proposed shall not take effect with respect to such transfer unless  the
  transfer  or  the  form of government containing it shall also receive a
  majority of all the votes cast thereon in all  the  cities  so  affected
  considered  as  one unit, in all the towns so affected considered as one
  unit, and in all the villages so affected considered as one unit.
4. Any alternative form of county government adopted by a county under
  this chapter shall  take  effect  on  the  first  day  of  January  next
  succeeding  its  adoption,  except  as  provided in subdivision five and
  except that the county president form of county  government  shall  take
  effect on the first day of January of the second year after its adoption
  and  the  first  county  president  shall be elected at the next general
  election following the adoption for a term  beginning  when  the  county
  president  form  takes  effect.  All  provisions  of  the  election  law
  applicable to the nomination and election of other county officers shall
  apply also to the nomination and election of the county president.
5. Any modification of an existing form shall take effect on the first
  day of January next succeeding its adoption, except that a  modification
  making  an  appointive  officer  elective  shall  take  effect as to the
  election at the next general election after its adoption and the officer
  then elected shall take office on the first day of  January  thereafter.
  Any  change  to another form of government or abandonment of an existing
  form shall take effect on the first day of January of  the  second  year
  after its adoption. Any new elective officers required by such change or
  abandonment  shall be elected at the general election next preceding the
  taking effect of the new form of government.
6. Variations which are inconsistent shall not  be  submitted  at  the
  same  election.  Should two or more inconsistent variations be proposed,
  the variation first proposed shall have preference and  shall  be  first
  submitted  to  the  electors  of the county for approval or disapproval.
  The other shall be submitted  to  the  electors  at  subsequent  general
  elections  occurring  in  an  odd-numbered  year,  in the order of their
  filing, but only if the inconsistent variation or variations  previously
  submitted  have  been  disapproved  or if initiated by a new petition or
  resolution.