CHAPTER 196

HB 389 - FINAL VERSION

 

04/20/2017   1367s

2017 SESSION

17-0689

03/10

 

HOUSE BILL 389

 

AN ACT relative to voters with physical disabilities.

 

SPONSORS: Rep. Fields, Belk. 4

 

COMMITTEE: Election Law

 

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ANALYSIS

 

This bill modifies procedures for assisting a disabled voter who is unable to access the polling place.

 

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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.

Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]

Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.

04/20/2017   1367s 17-0689

03/10

 

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

 

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Seventeen

 

AN ACT relative to voters with physical disabilities.

 

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

 

196:1  Cutoff.  Amend RSA 657:22 to read as follows:

657:22  Cutoff.  In any state election, a town or city clerk shall not accept any completed absentee ballots delivered to the clerk after 5:00 p.m. on election day except as provided in RSA 657:21-a, V and RSA 659:20-a.  The clerk shall record absentee ballots received after such time in the statewide centralized voter registration database with the return date and shall mark the ballot as rejected due to absentee ballot receipt after election day.  The clerk shall retain the unopened ballot until the time set for the destruction of other state election ballots as provided in RSA 659:100 at which time the envelopes shall likewise be destroyed, unopened and unexamined.

196:2  Assistance in Voting; Disabled Voter.  Amend RSA 659:20-a to read as follows:

659:20-a  Assistance in Voting; Disabled Voter.  Any voter, after appearing at the polling place location prior to the closing of the polls to vote in person, who declares to the moderator under oath that said voter is unable to access a polling place due to [physical] disability[, after appearing at the polling place location to vote in person] shall, upon the voter's request, have [an absentee ballot] the required documents delivered to the voter outside the guardrail by the town or ward clerk or one of his or her assistants.  The absentee ballot delivered by the town or ward clerk shall be [delivered and] processed using the same procedures as any other absentee ballot except that the [voter shall be treated on the marked checklist as having voted in person] cutoff time listed in RSA 657:22 shall not apply.

196:3  Effective Date.  This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.

 

Approved: July 05, 2017

Effective Date: September 03, 2017