House File 117

                                       HOUSE FILE       
                                       BY  JOCHUM


    Passed House, Date                Passed Senate,  Date             
    Vote:  Ayes        Nays           Vote:  Ayes        Nays         
                 Approved                            

                                      A BILL FOR

  1 An Act relating to absentee ballot applications.
  2 BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:
  3 TLSB 1415YH 80
  4 sc/sh/8

PAG LIN

  1  1    Section 1.  Section 53.2, unnumbered paragraph 1, Code
  1  2 2003, is amended to read as follows:
  1  3    Any registered voter, under the circumstances specified in
  1  4 section 53.1, may on any day, except election day, and not
  1  5 more than seventy days prior to the date of the election,
  1  6 apply in person for an absentee ballot at the commissioner's
  1  7 office or at any location designated by the commissioner, or
  1  8 make written application to the commissioner for an absentee
  1  9 ballot.  The state commissioner shall prescribe a form for
  1 10 absentee ballot applications.  However, if a registered voter
  1 11 submits an application that includes all of the information
  1 12 required in this section, the prescribed form is not required.
  1 13 The form prescribed by the commissioner shall be prepared in
  1 14 triplicate with instructions printed on the form directing the
  1 15 applicant to deliver the original to the county commissioner
  1 16 and to retain the duplicate.  If the application was supplied
  1 17 to the applicant by someone other than the county commissioner
  1 18 or the commissioner's designee, the triplicate shall be
  1 19 retained by the individual or organization who supplied the
  1 20 ballot application to the applicant.  Absentee ballot
  1 21 applications may include instructions to send the application
  1 22 directly to the county commissioner of elections.  However, no
  1 23 absentee ballot application shall be preaddressed or printed
  1 24 with instructions to send the applications to anyone other
  1 25 than the appropriate commissioner.
  1 26                           EXPLANATION
  1 27    This bill provides that the absentee ballot application
  1 28 form prescribed by the state commissioner of elections be
  1 29 prepared in triplicate and contain instructions directing the
  1 30 applicant to deliver the original to the county commissioner
  1 31 of elections and to retain the duplicate.  The bill provides
  1 32 that if the application was supplied to the applicant by
  1 33 someone other than the county commissioner or the
  1 34 commissioner's designee, the triplicate shall be retained by
  1 35 the individual or organization who supplied the ballot
  2  1 application to the applicant.
  2  2 LSB 1415YH 80
  2  3 sc/sh/8