House File 2249 - Introduced HOUSE FILE 2249 BY HUNTER and GASKILL A BILL FOR An Act relating to the database of persons prohibited from 1 voting or registering to vote due to conviction of a felony. 2 BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA: 3 TLSB 6015YH (2) 88 ss/jh
H.F. 2249 Section 1. NEW SECTION . 48A.7B Felony database maintenance 1 activities. 2 1. A database maintained by the state commissioner that 3 lists the persons who have been convicted of a felony shall be 4 reviewed and verified to be correct by thirty days before the 5 first Tuesday after the first Monday in November each year, and 6 one half of the database shall be verified to be correct by 7 July 1 of each year. 8 2. After completing the database verification required by 9 subsection 1, the state commissioner shall, by the first week 10 of the next regular session of the general assembly, submit a 11 report to the general assembly containing all of the following: 12 a. The number of registered voters who appeared on the list 13 of felons in error. 14 b. The number of persons who attempted to vote but were 15 prohibited from voting because of an error on the list of 16 felons. 17 c. A description of how the state commissioner intends to 18 prevent future errors in the database. 19 Sec. 2. Section 48A.30, Code 2020, is amended by adding the 20 following new subsection: 21 NEW SUBSECTION . 3. If a registered voter’s registration 22 is canceled pursuant to subsection 1, paragraph “d” , and it is 23 discovered that the registered voter was erroneously identified 24 as having been convicted of a felony as defined in section 25 701.7, or conviction of an offense classified as a felony under 26 federal law, the commissioner shall notify the registered voter 27 of the error, and shall reinstate the registration at the 28 last-known address of the registered voter if that address is 29 within the county of the commissioner. 30 EXPLANATION 31 The inclusion of this explanation does not constitute agreement with 32 the explanation’s substance by the members of the general assembly. 33 This bill relates to the database of persons prohibited from 34 voting or registering to vote due to conviction of a felony. 35 -1- LSB 6015YH (2) 88 ss/jh 1/ 2
H.F. 2249 The bill requires the state commissioner of elections to verify 1 the accuracy of the database by 30 days before the first 2 Tuesday after the first Monday in November of each year, and 3 to have verified the accuracy of 50 percent of the database by 4 July 1 of each year. After verifying the database, the state 5 commissioner of elections must submit a report to the general 6 assembly by the first week of the next regular session of the 7 general assembly regarding errors in the database. 8 The bill requires a county commissioner of elections who 9 discovers that a person’s voter registration has erroneously 10 been canceled due to an error in the felon voter database to 11 inform the person of the error, and to reinstate the person’s 12 registration at the last-known address of the person if the 13 address is within the county of the county commissioner of 14 elections. 15 -2- LSB 6015YH (2) 88 ss/jh 2/ 2