HOUSE AUTHOR: Wolens et al. |
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EFFECTIVE: 9-1-03 |
SENATE SPONSOR: Shapiro |
House Bill 54 amends provisions of the Election Code relating to early voting by mail procedures and to the prevention of voting fraud.
Assisting and Witnessing a Voter: The bill defines, by means of specific examples, conduct that constitutes assisting the voter while the person providing the assistance is in the presence of the voter's ballot or carrier envelope. The bill also expands the offense of illegal voting to include knowingly marking or attempting to mark another person's ballot without that person's consent; expands the offense of unlawfully assisting a voter to include preparing a voter's ballot without direction from the voter and providing assistance to a voter who either has not requested assistance or has not designated that person to provide the assistance; and increases the penalty for the latter offense from a Class B misdemeanor to a Class A misdemeanor.
The bill makes it a Class A misdemeanor for a person who acts as a witness for or helps in the completion of an applicant's early-voting ballot application and who signs the application to knowingly fail to comply with applicable provisions of current law governing such signature unless the person is related to the applicant or is registered to vote at the same address as the applicant.
Ballot and Balloting Materials: The bill requires an application for an early-voting ballot to contain space for the signature, printed name, and address of any person assisting the applicant and a notice of all applicable offenses. The bill establishes deadlines for mailing the balloting materials for early voting by mail to an eligible voter.
Carrier Envelopes: The bill expands the restrictions on the common or contract carrier used for early voting by mail. The bill requires a person who put the carrier envelope in the mail or a person who assisted a voter in preparing a ballot to put the person's signature, printed name, and residence address on the official carrier envelope of the voter.
The bill requires that each carrier envelope delivered by a common or contract carrier have a receipt with the name and address of the person who actually delivered the envelope to the carrier, and it prohibits delivery by a carrier of an envelope that originates from an office of a political party or candidate, rather than the party's or candidate's headquarters as previously proscribed. The bill prohibits anyone from collecting and storing carrier envelopes for subsequent delivery to the early voting clerk, and it prohibits anyone from possessing another person's ballot or carrier envelope without appropriate authority. The secretary of state's office is required to prescribe procedures to provide accountability for the delivery of the envelopes to the early voting clerk.
In addition to other requirements, the bill requires the official carrier envelope to contain the following: space on the reverse side for indicating the identity and date of the election and entering the signature, printed name, and residence address of a person other than the voter who deposits the carrier envelope in the mail or with the common or contract carrier; notice of all applicable prohibitions and offenses; and the voting rights hotline, which must also be included with the balloting materials for voting by mail sent to the voter.
The bill postpones the earliest permissible disclosure of information on the roster for a person who was sent an early voting mail ballot until the first business day after the election day, and it requires information on the roster for a person who votes an early voting ballot by mail to be made available for public inspection not later than the day following the day the early voting clerk receives the ballot by mail. The bill establishes various offenses ranging from Class B misdemeanors to second-degree felonies for various violations of these provisions.
Additional Offenses: The bill also makes it a state jail felony for anyone to buy, offer to buy, sell, or offer to sell an official ballot, ballot envelope, carrier envelope, signed application for an early-voting mail ballot, or any other election record and makes it a Class B misdemeanor for a voter to sell his or her ballot. The bill increases the penalty for knowingly providing false information on an application from a Class A misdemeanor to a state jail felony, unless the person was the applicant, a close relative, or a registered voter at the same address as the applicant, in which case the offense remains a Class A misdemeanor. The bill provides that it is a state jail felony to steal a ballot or carrier envelope and makes conforming amendments to the Penal Code