HSB 697

This bill relates to duties of the secretary of state, including the address confidentiality program and the conduct of elections. The bill is organized in divisions. DIVISION I —— ADDRESS CONFIDENTIALITY PROGRAM. This division relates to the address confidentiality program, which provides mail forwarding services to persons who are victims of domestic abuse, domestic abuse assault, sexual abuse, assault, stalking, or human trafficking, or who fear for their own safety or the safety of a household member. The bill allows the secretary of state to accept as a program participant’s mailing address the name and other contact information of a shelter in lieu of the shelter’s physical address, to cancel a deceased participant’s certification, and to hold a participant’s mail for up to days at the request of the participant. DIVISION II —— CANDIDATE ELIGIBILITY OBJECTIONS. This division relates to the nomination of candidates for federal office. The bill exempts candidates for federal office from the requirement that a candidate sign a statement that the candidate is aware that the candidate is disqualified from holding office if the candidate has been convicted of a felony or other infamous crime and the candidate’s rights have not been restored by the governor or by the president of the United States. _____ state commissioner of elections to objections to the legal sufficiency of the nomination petition or certificate of election, or to the residency, age, or citizenship requirements as described in the United States Constitution. With respect to nominations for president or vice president of the United States, the bill allows objections only to the legal sufficiency of the certificate of nomination. The certificate of nomination shall be presumed valid. DIVISION III —— RANKED CHOICE VOTING. This division relates to the use of ranked choice and instant runoff voting for elections in this state. The bill prohibits ranked choice and instant runoff voting, defined in the bill as a system in which voters rank multiple candidates for a single office in order of preference and candidates are eliminated and votes transferred between candidates in a series of rounds, from being used to cast or tabulate ballots in any election in this state. DIVISION IV —— ABSENT VOTERS. This division relates to the casting of ballots by absent voters. The bill strikes provisions allowing a county commissioner of elections to establish drop boxes to which a person can return an absentee ballot. The bill requires an absentee ballot that is mailed to a voter to be enclosed in an unsealed affidavit envelope and with or in an unsealed return envelope, which shall then be enclosed in the delivery envelope. If the ballot cannot be folded so that all the voting ovals on the ballot will be hidden, the bill requires the commissioner to also send a secrecy envelope. The bill requires a registered voter to subscribe to an affidavit on an affidavit envelope by signing the envelope and writing the voter’s voter verification number. The bill also requires return envelopes to have printed on them the deadline to return the ballot and the manner to track the status of the ballot. _____ commissioner of elections that it was signed by a person other than the voter. The bill adds a requirement that an affidavit envelope be considered to contain a defect if the voter verification number on the envelope does not match the voter verification number on file for the voter. The bill repeals certain requirements regarding what materials a commissioner shall include with an absentee ballot and instead requires a commissioner to put the same serial number on the affidavit, return, and delivery envelopes. The bill requires all mailed absentee ballots to include an affidavit envelope. The bill also requires the absentee and special voters precinct board to reject an absentee ballot if the affidavit envelope does not include the voter’s voter verification number. The bill changes the timeline for the mailing and return of absentee ballots. The bill allows a county commissioner of elections to mail absentee ballots to voters beginning days before an election and requires absentee ballots to be delivered to the office of the county commissioner of elections by the close of business on the day before election day. Under current law, county commissioners of elections may mail absentee ballots beginning days before an election and absentee ballots must be delivered to the office of the county commissioner of elections not later than the time polls close on election day. DIVISION V —— PERSONS PERMITTED IN VOTING BOOTHS.88 by occupying the voting booth with the voter. DIVISION VI —— VOTER REGISTRATION DATABASE PILOT PROGRAM. _____ program to allow the state registrar to verify the status of records in the statewide voter registration file and identify ineligible voters on an ongoing basis. During the first quarter of 2025, the bill requires the state registrar of voters to utilize the program developed or provided by the third-party vendor to verify the status of records in the statewide voter registration file. The state registrar shall forward the results of the analysis to each county commissioner of registration prior to the date that county commissioners of registration are required to submit voter list maintenance reports. The bill requires the state registrar of voters to evaluate the efficacy and cost of the pilot program as compared to the current method of maintaining the statewide voter registration database. The pilot program is repealed effective December 31, 2027. DIVISION VII —— COUNTY HOSPITAL BOARD OF TRUSTEES. This division strikes a provision setting the term length for persons elected to a county hospital board of trustees in a county with a population of at least 400,000 to six years, returning the term length to four years. The bill does not affect the term of office of a trustee elected to a county public hospital board of trustees prior to July 1, 2024.