An Act To Expand the Early Processing of Absentee Ballots
Maine Legislature, Session 127, LD 1539
Committee: Veterans and Legal Affairs
Sponsors: O'CONNOR
Amends: 21-A MRSA §760-B

Legislative Document 
No. 1539 
H.P. 1050 
House of Representatives, January 6, 2016 
An Act To Expand the Early Processing of Absentee Ballots 
Approved for introduction by a majority of the Legislative Council pursuant to Joint Rule 
203. 
Reference to the Committee on Veterans and Legal Affairs suggested and ordered printed. 
ROBERT B. HUNT 
Clerk 
Presented by Representative O'CONNOR of Berwick. 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1.  21-A MRSA §760-B, as amended by PL 2013, c. 457, §4, is further 
amended to read: 
§760-B.  Procedures when clerk processes absentee ballots prior to election day 
Any municipality or jurisdiction that conducts its own elections may opt to process 
absentee ballots on the beginning on the 4th day immediately prior to election day, except 
that processing on a Sunday is not permitted.  The clerk shall use the following procedure 
when processing the absentee ballots during this time. 
1.  Time for processing.  In a municipality that has opted to process absentee ballots 
on the day immediately one or more of the days prior to election day authorized by this 
section, the municipal clerk or the clerk's designees may process absentee ballots at the 
times designated by the clerk, between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m., except that if 
an inspection is requested pursuant to subsection 3, processing may not begin until after 
the inspection period has concluded. 
2.  Notice of early processing.  The clerk must give notice of the municipality's 
intent to process absentee ballots prior to election day using the notice of election under 
section 621-A, stating the time days and times that the clerk intends to begin processing 
absentee ballots and the inspection period provided in subsection 3.  At least 60 days 
before election day, the clerk shall provide a copy of the notice of election to the 
Secretary of State and the chairs of each political party of the municipality indicating that 
early processing of absentee ballots will occur.  The notice to the political parties must be 
considered sufficient as long as it is mailed to the last address of each municipal chair that 
is known to the clerk.  The notice to the Secretary of State may be delivered by mail or 
facsimile or as a scanned attachment to an e-mail address established by the Secretary of 
State.  If the notice is not received by the Secretary of State by 5:00 p.m. on the 60th day 
before election day, the municipality may not process absentee ballots prior to election 
day. 
3.  Inspection of absentee envelopes before processing.  A member of the public 
may make a written request of the clerk to inspect absentee ballot applications and 
envelopes before they are processed if the request is made by 9:00 a.m. on the first day 
immediately that the clerk will process absentee ballots as specified on the notice of 
election prior to election day.  The clerk shall make the absentee ballot applications and 
envelopes received by that time available for public inspection for one hour before the 
starting time specified in the notice of election for processing the absentee ballots.  The 
clerk may immediately proceed to process the ballots after the one-hour inspection time 
has elapsed. 
4.  Processing and other procedures.  The clerk shall use the procedure described in 
this section when processing the absentee ballots during the designated times.  Procedures 
for handling full ballot boxes, pollwatching and challenging ballots are conducted in the 
same manner as election day or as close as practicable. 
4-A.  Tabulation of absentee ballots at state-designated central locations.  The 
Secretary of State may provide a high-speed ballot tabulator to be made available to any 
municipality at one or more state-designated central locations for the purpose of scanning 
and tabulating absentee ballots.  If a municipality opts to process absentee ballots using a 
high-speed ballot tabulator, the municipal clerk must apply to the Secretary of State for 
authorization.  The Secretary of State shall notify the municipal clerk in writing of the 
Secretary of State's authorization or denial of authorization to use a high-speed ballot 
tabulator and provide a designated time for the municipality to scan its ballots. 
A municipality authorized to scan absentee ballots at a state-designated central location 
must first open and process absentee ballots at the times and in the location within the 
municipality as designated in the notice of election and follow all procedures described in 
this section.  The absentee ballots once removed from their envelopes must be secured in 
locked and sealed containers before being transported to the state-designated central 
location.  The Secretary of State shall publish uniform guidelines for securing and 
transporting ballots and other materials under this subsection. 
5.  Counting and results prohibited before the polls close.  The absentee ballots 
may not be counted, voter intent may not be determined and election results may not be 
obtained or released until after the polls have closed on election day, and all election day 
ballots have been cast and all absentee ballots have been processed.  A municipality that 
uses a high-speed ballot tabulator pursuant to subsection 4-A and receives results at the 
completion of the ballot scanning may not view the results until after the polls close on 
election day. 
6.  Security of processed ballots and tabulating equipment.  At the conclusion of 
absentee ballot processing on the any day immediately prior to election day, the clerk 
shall ensure that the early processed absentee ballots are locked and sealed in the ballot 
box, automatic tabulating equipment ballot box or tamper-proof containers provided by 
the Secretary of State and secured in a vault or other locked secure location, until the 
voting resumes on election day or until the ballots are counted after the polls close.  The 
Secretary of State shall publish uniform guidelines for securing ballots and other 
materials under this subsection. 
SUMMARY 
This bill provides that a municipality may opt to process absentee ballots as early as 
the 4th day before the election.  It also authorizes the Secretary of State to make available 
high-speed tabulators for absentee ballots and to allow a municipality to bring absentee 
ballots to a central location for tabulating by the high-speed tabulators as long as security 
guidelines are properly followed.