HB796 - Absentee voting; electronic ballot return.

1 Co-Sponsor

Elections; absentee voting; electronic ballot return. Elections; absentee voting; electronic ballot return. Requires that the Department of Elections establish an electronic transmission system through which a military or overseas voter or voter with a disability may request, receive, and return a ballot. The bill also requires a general registrar to offer an applicant for an absentee ballot who indicates that he will require assistance to vote the option to have a blank absentee ballot, the form for the envelope for returning the marked ballot, and instructions sent to him by electronic transmission. A voter with a disability who receives a ballot by electronic transmission may print and return the ballot or may return the ballot by electronic transmission if the voter affirms that he is an individual who, regardless of any other disability, (i) is blind; (ii) has a visual impairment or perceptual or reading disability that cannot be improved to give visual function substantially equivalent to that of a person who has no such impairment or disability and so is unable to read or mark a ballot to substantially the same degree as a person without an impairment or disability; or (iii) is otherwise unable, through physical disability, to hold, mark, or manipulate a ballot or to focus or move the eyes to the extent that would be normally required for reading or marking a ballot. Additionally, the bill requires a general registrar to send any voter who indicates that he will require assistance due to a disability a voter assistance form. Under current law, voters who opt to receive a ballot marking tool are not sent a voter assistance form. The bill also allows a military or overseas voter who requested and received ballot materials by electronic transmission to return the ballot by electronic transmission in circumstances where another more secure method, such as returning the ballot by mail, is not available or feasible.