Source: http://www.wvlegislature.gov/Bill_Text_HTML/2020_sessions/RS/bills/SB94%20SUB1%20ENG.htm
Timestamp: 2020-02-21 12:06:36
Document Index: 341584808

Matched Legal Cases: ['§3', '§3', '§3', '§3', '§3', '§3', '§3', '§1973', '§3']

Senators Trump, Weld, Azinger, Baldwin, Beach, Clements, Cline, Hardesty, Jeffries, Lindsay, Maynard, Pitsenbarger, Romano, Rucker, Smith, Takubo, Woelfel, Hamilton, Stollings, Ihlenfeld, and Sypolt, original sponsors
[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary; reported on January 10, 2020]
A BILL to amend and reenact §3-3-1, §3-3-2, §3-3-2b, §3-3-4, §3-3-5, and §3-3-6 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended; and to amend said code by adding thereto a new section, designated §3-3-1a, all relating generally to absentee voting; clarifying that voters with disabilities prevented from voting in person may vote by mail-in absentee ballot; providing that voters with physical disabilities may vote by electronic absentee ballot; clarifying that certain overseas military members and citizens may vote by electronic absentee ballot; defining terms; providing that a voter with a physical disability may electronically submit an application to vote absentee; establishing that a voter may be on the special absentee voting list while the voter has a physical disability; providing that the information collected in the application to be placed on the special absentee voting list include whether a voter with a physical disability requests an electronic absentee ballot; clarifying that a voter with a physical disability can receive assistance to vote in certain circumstances; establishing requirements and deadlines for transmission, submission, and acceptance of electronic absentee ballots; and updating obsolete terms.
(1) The voter’s name and signature;
(d) Upon receipt of a properly completed application, the official designated to supervise and conduct absentee voting shall enter the name on the special absentee voting list which is to be maintained in a secure and permanent record. The person’s name will remain active on the list until: (1) The person requests in writing that his or her name be removed; (2) the person removes his or her residence from is no longer a resident of the county, is purged from the voter registration books, or otherwise becomes ineligible to vote; (3) a ballot mailed to the address provided on the application is returned undeliverable by the United States Postal Service; (4) the person no longer has a physical disability; (4) the death of the person (5) the person dies; or (5) (6) in the case of a an Address Confidentiality Program participant, withdrawal or removal the person withdraws or is removed from that program.
(c) Any one or more of the election commissioners or poll clerks in the precinct to which an absent voter’s absentee ballot has been sent may challenge the ballot on the ground grounds that the voter received assistance in voting it the ballot when in his or their opinion: (1) The person who received the assistance in voting the absent voter’s absentee ballot did not require assistance; or (2) the person who provided the assistance in voting did not make an affidavit as required by this section. The election commissioner or poll clerk or commissioners or poll clerks making a challenge shall enter the challenge and reason for the challenge on the form and in the manner prescribed or authorized by this article.
(d) Before entering the voting booth or compartment, the person who intends to provide a voter assistance in voting by personal appearance shall make an affidavit, the form of which is to be prescribed by the Secretary of State, that he or she will not in any manner request, or seek to persuade, or induce the voter to vote any particular ticket or for any particular candidate or for or against any public question; and that he or she will not keep or make any memorandum or entry of anything occurring within the voting booth or compartment; and that he or she will not, directly or indirectly, reveal to any person the name of any candidate voted for by the voter, or which ticket he or she had the voter voted, or how he or she had the voter voted on any public question, or anything occurring within the voting booth, or compartment, or voting machine booth, except when required, pursuant to law, to give testimony as to the matter in a judicial proceeding.
(4) If no voter has been assisted in voting an absent voter’s absentee ballot as provided in this section, the official designated to supervise and conduct absentee voting shall make and subscribe to an oath of that fact on the list.
(5) The “List of Assisted Voters” is to be available for public inspection in the office of the official designated to supervise and conduct absentee voting during regular business hours throughout the period provided for voting an absent voter’s absentee ballot by personal appearance and, unless otherwise directed by the Secretary of State, the official shall transmit the list, together with the affidavits, applications, and absent voters’ absentee ballots, to the precincts on election day.
(f) Following the election, the affidavits required by this section from persons providing assistance in voting, together with the “List of Assisted Voters”, are to be returned by the election commissioners to the clerk of the county commission, along with the election supplies, records, and returns. who The clerk shall make the oaths and the “List of Assisted Voters” available for public inspection and who shall preserve the oaths and list for 22 months or, if under order of the court, until their destruction or other disposition is authorized or directed by the court.
(h) Any person who provides a voter assistance in voting an absent voter’s absentee ballot in the office of the official designated to supervise and conduct absentee voting who is not qualified or permitted by this section to provide assistance is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than $1,000 or confined in jail for a period of not more than one year, or both fined and confined.
(i) Any official designated to supervise and conduct absentee voting, election commissioner, or poll clerk who authorizes or allows a voter to receive or to have received unchallenged assistance in voting an absent voter’s absentee ballot when the voter is known to the official designated to supervise and conduct absentee voting or election commissioner or poll clerk not to be or have been authorized by the provisions of this section to receive or to have received assistance in voting is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than $1,000 or confined in jail for a period of not more than one year, or both fined and confined.
(j) The term “physical disability” as used in this section means blindness or a degree of blindness as will prevent the voter from seeing the names on the ballot or amputation of both hands or a disability of both hands that neither can be used to make cross marks on the absent voter’s ballot.
(2) If the voter is an absent uniformed services voter or overseas voter, as defined by 42 U.S.C. §1973, et seq., the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act of 1986, the official designated to supervise and conduct absentee voting shall transmit the ballot to the voter via mail, or electronically, as requested by the voter. If the voter does not designate a preference for transmittal, the clerk may select either method of transmittal for the ballot. If the ballot is transmitted electronically pursuant to this subdivision, the official designated to supervise and conduct absentee voting shall also transmit electronically:
§3-3-6. Assistance to voter in voting an absent voter’s absentee ballot by mail.
(a) No voter shall receive any assistance in voting an absent voter’s absentee ballot by mail unless he or she shall make a declaration at the time he or she makes application for an absent voter’s absentee ballot that because of blindness, physical disability, advanced age, or inability to read or write he or she requires assistance in voting an absent voter’s absentee ballot.
(b) Upon receipt of an absent voter’s absentee ballot by mail, the voter who requires assistance in voting such ballot and who has indicated he or she requires such assistance and the reasons therefor on the application may select any eligible person to assist him or her in voting.
(c) The person providing assistance in voting an absent voter’s absentee ballot by mail shall make an affidavit on a form as may be prescribed by the Secretary of State, that he or she will not in any manner request, or seek to persuade, or induce the voter to vote any particular ticket or for any particular candidate or for or against any public question; and that he or she will not keep or make any memorandum or entry of anything occurring within the voting booth or compartment; and that he or she will not, directly or indirectly, reveal to any person the name of any candidate voted for by the voter, or which ticket he the voter had voted, or how he the voter had voted on any public question, or anything occurring within the voting booth, or compartment, or voting machine booth, except when required, pursuant to law, to give testimony as to such matter in a judicial proceeding.
(d) The term “assistance in voting”, as used in this section, shall mean means assistance in physically marking the official absent voter’s absentee ballot for a voter or reading or directing the voter’s attention to any part of the official absent voter’s absentee ballot.