Bill
SB 2654
Authorize in-person absentee voting at county registrar offices using optical mark recognition (OMR), with sealing, deadlines, and processing rules.
Status: Died on Calendar
Note on source text: The draft materials provided for SB 2654 include text drawn from multiple jurisdictions and topics (notably detailed Mississippi absentee voting language and Illinois statutory edits concerning cannabis, taxation, and professional regulation). This summary highlights the principal, substantive provisions shown in the supplied materials, and flags jurisdictional/consistency issues.
The bill, titled "In-person early voting; allow," primarily appears intended to (1) authorize and regulate in-person absentee/early voting at county registrar offices using optical mark recognition (OMR) equipment and (2) make a number of unrelated statutory changes (in the provided text) to Illinois laws governing medical cannabis, tax law definitions, and confidentiality rules in the Department of Professional Regulation. The draft therefore mixes election-administration reforms with substantive health/tax regulatory adjustments.
Election / Absentee voting (majority of text appears to be Mississippi Code amendments)
- Allows absentee voters to cast in-person absentee ballots at the registrar’s office using OMR equipment. Specifies timing limits: ballots cast in person must be cast no later than 12:00 noon on the Saturday immediately preceding Tuesday elections (different deadlines provided for Saturday or other-day elections).
- Requires OMR equipment used in the registrar’s office to be sealed at close of business and not unsealed until the beginning of the next business day; records of seals and ballot counts must be kept.
- If OMR equipment becomes inoperable, voters are to be directed to cast paper absentee ballots; paper ballots must be handled per existing absentee-paper procedures.
- Mailed absentee ballots must be postmarked by election day and received by the registrar within five business days after the election to be timely.
- Resolution board procedures: canvassing/processing of mailed absentee ballots may begin before election day (Monday before election in the draft); absentee ballots received before 7:00 p.m. the day before the election are to be counted at the registrar’s office when polls close and added to precinct totals; ballots received within the 5-business-day window are to be processed by the resolution board.
- A signature mismatch is not grounds to reject an absentee ballot cast in person at the registrar’s office.
- Direction that absentee ballots remain in the registrar’s office for counting and not be taken to precincts.
- Retention/preservation rules for absentee and election materials (references to 22-month preservation for certain federal/presidential elections).
Other statutory changes (text appears to derive from Illinois bill language)
- Amendments to Department of Professional Regulation confidentiality provisions (limits on disclosure of complaint/investigation materials; certain formal complaints/orders will be public records).
- Revisions to multiple Illinois tax acts (Use Tax Act, Service Use Tax Act, Retailers' Occupation Tax Act) including adjustments to tax rate application language (6.25% baseline, inclusion of leases effective Jan 1, 2025) and special rules for motor fuels, gasohol, ethanol blends, biodiesel with phased percentage applications and date-specific rules.
- Extensive amendments to Illinois cannabis-related statutes: changes to definitions (e.g., "prescription and nonprescription medicines and drugs" and "adult use cannabis" effective Jan 1, 2026); integration/transition provisions between the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Program Act and the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act; additions of provisional patients and Opioid Alternative Patient Program participants to qualified-patient protections; authorization for caregivers/patients to purchase adequate medical supply at licensed dispensing organizations beginning Jan 1, 2026; cessation of issuance/renewal of some medical cannabis cultivation permits after Jan 1, 2026; references to social equity licensees, loan/grant program changes, license mergers, and various conforming changes. Many of these cannabis provisions are described as effective immediately or with 2026 transition dates and some measures are slated to sunset or repeal on specified dates.
If you want, I can:
- Produce a clean, jurisdictionally consistent version focusing only on the absentee/in-person early voting reforms, or
- Produce a separate, detailed summary of the Illinois cannabis and tax changes contained in the mixed draft.
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
Sign in to ask a question.
