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Senate Bill 5 (1st C.S.) |
Senate Author: Hancock et al. |
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Effective: 12-1-17 |
House Sponsor: Goldman et al. |
Senate Bill 5 amends the Election Code to revise the conduct constituting illegal voting and to create the Class A misdemeanor offense of election fraud. The bill revises the conduct, penalties, and application of various offenses under provisions relating to the application for an early voting ballot by mail and to the conduct of early voting by mail. The bill authorizes a voter with a disability who is physically unable to cast an early voting ballot by mail to select a person to assist the voter. The bill provides for the comparison of certain signatures of a voter by a signature verification committee and an early voting ballot board, creates a Class A misdemeanor offense for a person who intentionally accepts a ballot for voting or causes a ballot to be accepted for voting that the person knows does not meet certain ballot requirements, and provides for the delivery of notice of rejected ballots by an early voting clerk to the attorney general. The bill revises provisions relating to the submission of an application for an early voting ballot, the cancellation of such an application, and the provision of early voting balloting materials. The bill establishes a uniform period for the preservation of precinct election records by the authority to whom they are distributed of 22-months.