Full Text of HB0111 94th General Assembly
HB0111 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2005 and 2006 HB0111
Introduced 1/6/2005, by Rep. Sara Feigenholtz SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED: |
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Amends the Election Code. Provides that casting a provisional ballot in the incorrect precinct does not invalidate that ballot's votes for federal and statewide offices. Requires the State Board of Elections to adopt rules for the counting of those votes.
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A BILL FOR
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HB0111 |
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LRB094 04148 JAM 34169 b |
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| AN ACT concerning elections.
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| Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
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| represented in the General Assembly:
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| Section 5. The Election Code is amended by changing Section | 5 |
| 18A-15 as follows:
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| (10 ILCS 5/18A-15)
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| Sec. 18A-15. Validating and counting provisional ballots.
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| (a) The county clerk or board of election commissioners | 9 |
| shall complete the
validation and counting of provisional | 10 |
| ballots within 14 calendar days of
the day of the election. The | 11 |
| county clerk or board of election commissioners
shall have 7 | 12 |
| calendar days from the completion of the validation and
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| counting of provisional ballots to conduct its final canvass. | 14 |
| The State Board
of Elections shall complete within 31 calendar | 15 |
| days of the election or sooner
if all the returns are received, | 16 |
| its final canvass of the vote for all public
offices.
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| (b) If a county clerk or board of election commissioners | 18 |
| determines that all
of the following apply, then a provisional | 19 |
| ballot is valid and shall be counted
as a vote:
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| (1) The provisional voter cast the provisional ballot | 21 |
| in the correct
precinct based on the address provided by | 22 |
| the provisional voter . Votes for federal and statewide | 23 |
| offices on a provisional ballot cast in the incorrect | 24 |
| precinct that meets the other requirements of this | 25 |
| subsection shall be valid and counted in accordance with | 26 |
| rules adopted by the State Board of Elections. As used in | 27 |
| this item, "federal office" is defined as provided in | 28 |
| Section 20-1 and "statewide office" means the Governor, | 29 |
| Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, | 30 |
| Comptroller, and Treasurer ;
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| (2) The affidavit executed by the provisional voter | 32 |
| pursuant to subsection
(b)(2) of Section 18A-10 is properly |
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HB0111 |
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LRB094 04148 JAM 34169 b |
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| executed; and
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| (3) the provisional voter is a registered voter based | 3 |
| on information
available to the county clerk or board of | 4 |
| election commissioners provided by or
obtained from any of | 5 |
| the following:
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| i. the provisional voter;
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| ii. an election judge;
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| iii. the statewide voter registration database | 9 |
| maintained by the State
Board of Elections;
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| iv. the records of the county clerk or board of | 11 |
| election commissioners'
database; or
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| v. the records of the Secretary of State.
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| (c) With respect to subsection (b)(3) of this Section, the | 14 |
| county clerk or
board of election commissioners shall | 15 |
| investigate whether each of the 5
types of information is | 16 |
| available and record whether this information is or is
not | 17 |
| available. If one or more types of information is available, | 18 |
| then the
county clerk or board of election commissioners shall | 19 |
| obtain all relevant
information from all sources identified in | 20 |
| subsection (b)(3). The county clerk
or board of election | 21 |
| commissioners shall use any information it obtains as the
basis | 22 |
| for determining the voter registration status of the | 23 |
| provisional voter.
If a conflict exists among the information | 24 |
| available to the county clerk or
board of election | 25 |
| commissioners as to the registration status of the
provisional | 26 |
| voter, then the county clerk or board of election commissioners
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| shall make a
determination based on the totality of the | 28 |
| circumstances. In a case where the
above information equally | 29 |
| supports or opposes the registration status of the
voter, the | 30 |
| county clerk or board of election commissioners shall decide in
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| favor of the provisional voter as being duly registered to | 32 |
| vote. If the
statewide voter registration database maintained | 33 |
| by the State Board of
Elections indicates that the provisional | 34 |
| voter is registered to vote, but the
county clerk's or board of | 35 |
| election commissioners' voter registration database
indicates | 36 |
| that the provisional voter is not registered to vote, then the
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| information found in the statewide voter registration database | 2 |
| shall control
the matter and the provisional voter shall be | 3 |
| deemed to be registered to vote.
If the records of the county | 4 |
| clerk or board of election commissioners indicates
that the | 5 |
| provisional
voter is registered to vote, but the statewide | 6 |
| voter registration database
maintained by the State Board of | 7 |
| Elections indicates that the provisional voter
is not | 8 |
| registered to vote, then the information found in the records | 9 |
| of the
county clerk or board of election commissioners shall | 10 |
| control the matter and
the provisional voter shall be deemed to | 11 |
| be registered to vote. If the
provisional voter's signature on | 12 |
| his or her provisional ballot request varies
from the signature | 13 |
| on
an otherwise valid registration application solely because | 14 |
| of the substitution
of initials for the first or middle name, | 15 |
| the election authority may not reject
the provisional ballot.
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| (d) In validating the registration status of a person | 17 |
| casting a provisional
ballot, the county clerk or board of | 18 |
| election commissioners shall not require a
provisional voter to | 19 |
| complete any form other than the affidavit executed by the
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| provisional voter under subsection (b)(2) of Section 18A-5. In | 21 |
| addition,
the
county clerk or board of election commissioners | 22 |
| shall not require all
provisional voters or
any particular | 23 |
| class or group of provisional voters to appear personally | 24 |
| before
the county clerk or board of election commissioners or | 25 |
| as a matter of policy
require provisional voters to submit | 26 |
| additional information to verify or
otherwise support the | 27 |
| information already submitted by the provisional voter.
The | 28 |
| provisional voter may, within 2 calendar days after the | 29 |
| election, submit
additional information to the county clerk or | 30 |
| board of election commissioners.
This information must be | 31 |
| received by the county clerk or board of election
commissioners | 32 |
| within the 2-calendar-day period.
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| (e) If the county clerk or board of election commissioners | 34 |
| determines that
subsection (b)(1), (b)(2), or (b)(3) does not | 35 |
| apply, then the provisional
ballot is not valid
and may not be | 36 |
| counted. The provisional ballot envelope containing the ballot
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| cast by the provisional voter may not be opened. The county | 2 |
| clerk or board of
election commissioners shall write on the | 3 |
| provisional ballot envelope the
following: "Provisional ballot | 4 |
| determined invalid.".
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| (f) If the county clerk or board of election commissioners | 6 |
| determines that a
provisional ballot is valid under this | 7 |
| Section, then the provisional ballot
envelope shall be opened. | 8 |
| The outside of each provisional ballot
envelope shall
also be
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| marked to identify the precinct and the date of the election.
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| (g) The provisional ballots determined to be valid shall be | 11 |
| added to the
vote
totals for the precincts from which they were | 12 |
| cast in the order in which the
ballots were opened.
The county | 13 |
| clerk or board of election commissioners may, in the | 14 |
| alternative,
create a separate provisional-voter precinct for | 15 |
| the purpose of counting and
recording provisional ballots and | 16 |
| adding the recorded votes to its official
canvass.
The | 17 |
| validation and counting of provisional ballots shall be subject | 18 |
| to the
provisions of this Code that apply to pollwatchers.
If | 19 |
| the provisional ballots are a ballot of a punch card
voting | 20 |
| system, then the provisional ballot shall be counted in a | 21 |
| manner
consistent with Article 24A. If the provisional ballots
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| are a ballot of optical scan or other type of approved | 23 |
| electronic voting
system, then the provisional ballots shall be | 24 |
| counted in a manner consistent
with Article 24B.
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| (h) As soon as the ballots have been counted, the election | 26 |
| judges or
election officials shall, in
the presence of the | 27 |
| county clerk or board of election commissioners, place each
of | 28 |
| the following items in a separate envelope or bag: (1) all | 29 |
| provisional
ballots, voted or spoiled; (2)
all provisional | 30 |
| ballot envelopes of provisional ballots voted or spoiled; and
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| (3) all executed affidavits
of the provisional ballots voted or | 32 |
| spoiled.
All provisional ballot envelopes for provisional | 33 |
| voters who have been
determined
not to be registered to vote | 34 |
| shall remain sealed. The county clerk or board of
election | 35 |
| commissioners shall treat the provisional ballot envelope | 36 |
| containing
the written affidavit as a voter registration |
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| application for that person for
the next election and process | 2 |
| that application.
The election judges or election officials | 3 |
| shall then
securely
seal each envelope or bag, initial the | 4 |
| envelope or bag, and plainly mark on the
outside of the | 5 |
| envelope or bag in ink the precinct in which the provisional
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| ballots were cast. The election judges or election officials | 7 |
| shall then place
each sealed envelope or
bag into a box, secure | 8 |
| and seal it in the same manner as described in
item (6) of | 9 |
| subsection (b) of Section 18A-5. Each election judge or | 10 |
| election
official shall take and subscribe an oath
before the | 11 |
| county clerk or
board of election commissioners that the | 12 |
| election judge or election official
securely kept the
ballots | 13 |
| and papers in the box, did not permit any person to open the | 14 |
| box or
otherwise touch or tamper with the ballots and papers in | 15 |
| the box, and has no
knowledge of any other person opening the | 16 |
| box.
For purposes of this Section, the term "election official" | 17 |
| means the county
clerk, a member of the board of election | 18 |
| commissioners, as the case may be, and
their respective | 19 |
| employees.
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| (Source: P.A. 93-574, eff. 8-21-03.)
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