SENATE FILE 333

BY  SODDERS

A BILL FOR

An Act relating to the provision of absentee ballots to residents or patients of certain health care facilities and hospitals.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

   Section 1.  Section 39A.4, subsection 1, paragraph c, subparagraphs (11) and (12), Code 2011, are amended to read as follows:
   (11)  Returning a voted absentee ballot, by mail or in person, to the commissioner’s office and the person returning the ballot is not the voter, the voter’s designee, or a special precinct election official designated pursuant to section 53.22, subsection 1 1A.
   (12)  Making a false or untrue statement reporting that a voted absentee ballot was returned to the commissioner’s office, by mail or in person, by a person other than the voter, the voter’s designee, or a special precinct election official designated pursuant to section 53.22, subsection 1 1A.
   Sec. 2.  Section 53.8, subsection 3, paragraphs a and b, Code 2011, are amended to read as follows:
   a.  When an application for an absentee ballot is received by the commissioner of any county from a registered voter who is a patient in a hospital in that county or a resident of any facility in that county shown to be a health care facility by the list of licenses provided the commissioner under section 135C.29, the absentee ballot shall be mailed or personally delivered to the voterand returned to the commissioner in the manner prescribed by section 53.22.
   b.
  (1)  If the application indicates that the ballot is to be personally delivered to the applicant and the application is received more than five days before the ballots are printed and the commissioner has elected to have the ballots personally delivered during the ten-day period after the ballots are printed, the commissioner shall mail to the applicant within twenty-four hours a letter in substantially the following form:
  Your application for an absentee ballot for the election to be held on ...... has been received. This ballot will be personally delivered to you by a bipartisan team sometime during the ten days after the ballots are printed. If you will not be at the address from which your application was sent during any or all of the ten-day period immediately following the printing of the ballots, the ballot will be personally delivered to you sometime during the fourteen days preceding the election. If you will not be at the address from which your application was sent during either of these time periods, contact this office and arrangements will be made to have your absentee ballot delivered at a time when you will be present at that address.
   (2)  If the application indicates that the ballot is to be personally delivered to the applicant and the application is received more than fourteen calendar days before the election and the commissioner has not elected to mail absentee ballots to applicants as provided under section 53.22, subsection 3, and has not elected to have the absentee ballots personally delivered during the ten-day period after the ballots are printed, the commissioner shall mail to the applicant within twenty-four hours a letter in substantially the following form:
  Your application for an absentee ballot for the election to be held on ...... has been received. This ballot will be personally delivered to you by a bipartisan team sometime during the fourteen days preceding the election. If you will not be at the address from which your application was sent during any or all of the fourteen-day period immediately preceding the election, contact this office and arrangements will be made to have your absentee ballot delivered at a time when you will be present at that address.
   Sec. 3.  Section 53.17, subsection 1, paragraph a, Code 2011, is amended to read as follows:
   a.  The sealed return envelope may be delivered by the registered voter, by the voter’s designee, or by the special precinct election officials designated pursuant to section 53.22, subsection 1 1A, to the commissioner’s office no later than the time the polls are closed on election day. However, if delivered by the voter’s designee, the envelope shall be delivered within seventy-two hours of retrieving it from the voter or before the closing of the polls on election day, whichever is earlier.
   Sec. 4.  Section 53.22, subsection 1, paragraph a, Code 2011, is amended to read as follows:
   a.
  (1)  A registered voter who has applied for an absentee ballot, in a manner other than that prescribed by section 53.10 or 53.11, and who is a resident or patient in a health care facility or hospital located in the county to which the application has been submitted shall be delivered the appropriate absentee ballot in the manner provided in this section. The application for an absentee ballot shall include space for an applicant under this section to indicate whether the applicant wants the ballot mailed or personally delivered to the applicant.
   1A.
  a.  (1)  If the applicant indicated on the application that the ballot be personally delivered, or if the applicant did not indicate a preference on the application, the ballot shall be delivered by two special precinct election officers, one of whom shall be a member of each of the political parties referred to in section 49.13, who shall be appointed by the commissioner from the election board panel for the special precinct established by section 53.20. The special precinct election officers shall be sworn in the manner provided by section 49.75 for election board members, shall receive compensation as provided in section 49.20, and shall perform their duties during the ten calendar days after the ballots are printed if the commissioner so elects, during the fourteen calendar days preceding the election, and on election day if all ballots requested under section 53.8, subsection 3, have not previously been delivered and returned.
   (2)  If materials are prepared for the two special precinct election officials, a list shall be made of all voters to whom ballots are to be delivered. The list shall be sent with the officials who deliver the ballots and shall include spaces to indicate whether the person was present at the hospital or health care facility when the officials arrived, whether the person requested assistance from the officials, whether the person was assisted by another person of the voter’s choice, the time that the ballot was returned to the officials, and any other notes the officials deem necessary.
   (3)  The officials shall also be issued a supply of extra ballots to replace spoiled ballots. Receipts shall be issued in substantially the same form as receipts issued to precinct election officials pursuant to section 49.65. All ballots shall be accounted for and shall be returned to the commissioner. Separate envelopes shall be provided for the return of spoiled ballots and unused ballots.
   Sec. 5.  Section 53.22, Code 2011, is amended by adding the following new subsection:
   NEW SUBSECTION.  1B.  If the applicant indicated on the application that the ballot be mailed to the applicant, the commissioner shall mail the ballot to the applicant in the time prescribed by section 53.8, subsection 1.
   Sec. 6.  Section 53.22, subsection 3, Code 2011, is amended to read as follows:
   3.  For any election except a primary or general election or a special election to fill a vacancy under section 69.14, the commissioner may, as an alternative to subsection 1 subsections 1A and 1B, mail an absentee ballot to an applicant under this section to be voted and returned to the commissioner in accordance with this chapter. This subsection only applies to applications for absentee ballots from a single health care facility or hospital if there are no more than two applications from that facility or hospital.
EXPLANATION
   This bill provides that an applicant for an absentee ballot who is a resident or patient of a health care facility or hospital may indicate on the application whether the applicant wants the absentee ballot personally delivered or mailed to the applicant.
   Under current law, a resident or patient of a health care facility or hospital who makes application for an absentee ballot is, in most circumstances, delivered the ballot by two special precinct election officials appointed by the county commissioner of elections.