Relating to the administration of elections

This bill relates to the administration of elections. The bill requires absentee ballot materials to include the voter’s four-digit personal identification number instead of the voter’s voter identification number. The bill prohibits special elections from being held on the first, second, or third Tuesdays preceding and following city or school elections. The bill requires a county commissioner of elections to inform the county sheriff if an acknowledgment of election day and in-person absentee registration form sent by the commissioner does not receive a response from the voter. The bill also requires voter registration records, including voter registration forms, to be maintained on the statewide voter registration system. The bill strikes a provision allowing election officials to electronically transmit results from voting equipment to the county commissioner of elections’ office after producing a written report of the election results, including provisions relating to the approval of associated devices and the adoption of administrative rules for associated procedures. The bill changes the length of time that a county commissioner of elections must maintain election records for elections in which federal offices are not on the ballot from months to months or until the completion of an election contest, whichever is later. _____ for federal offices is maintained for months under current law. The bill strikes a requirement that nomination papers for primary election candidates for state and county offices be destroyed days before the general election if a contest is not pending. The bill removes the first and second Monday following an election as a possible day for conducting a first or second canvass of an election, respectively. on election day for the counting of absentee ballots. The bill requires the state commissioner of elections to prescribe the form of the pledge signed by presidential elector nominees and alternate elector nominees. The bill changes the signature requirement for a written protest of a city budget from a number of registered voters equal to one-fourth of percent of the votes cast for governor in the last preceding general election in the city to a number of registered voters equal to one-fourth of percent of the population of the city according to the most recent federal decennial census or special census, whichever is later. The bill also strikes an alternative minimum number of signatures and an alternative maximum number of signatures.