Bill Text: FL S0726 | 2017 | Regular Session | Comm Sub

Florida Senate Bill 726 (Prior Session Legislation)

Bill Title: Vote-by-mail Ballots

Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Failed) 2017-05-03 - Laid on Table [S0726 Detail]

Download: Florida-2017-S0726-Comm_Sub.html

       Florida Senate - 2017                       CS for CS for SB 726
       
       
        
       By the Committees on Rules; and Ethics and Elections; and
       Senators Powell and Campbell
       
       
       
       
       595-04421-17                                           2017726c2
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to vote-by-mail ballots; amending s.
    3         101.69, F.S.; authorizing an elector to vote by
    4         personally delivering his or her completed vote-by
    5         mail ballot to an early voting site in the elector’s
    6         county of residence during the site’s hours of
    7         operation; requiring the Division of Elections to
    8         adopt rules; providing an effective date.
    9          
   10  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   11  
   12         Section 1. Section 101.69, Florida Statutes, is amended to
   13  read:
   14         101.69 Voting in person; return of vote-by-mail ballot.—
   15         (1) The provisions of this code shall not be construed to
   16  prohibit any elector from voting in person at the elector’s
   17  precinct on the day of an election or at an early voting site,
   18  notwithstanding that the elector has requested a vote-by-mail
   19  ballot for that election. An elector who has returned a voted
   20  vote-by-mail ballot to the supervisor, however, is deemed to
   21  have cast his or her ballot and is not entitled to vote another
   22  ballot or to have a provisional ballot counted by the county
   23  canvassing board. An elector who has received a vote-by-mail
   24  ballot and has not returned the voted ballot to the supervisor,
   25  but desires to vote in person, shall return the ballot, whether
   26  voted or not, to the election board in the elector’s precinct or
   27  to an early voting site. The returned ballot shall be marked
   28  “canceled” by the board and placed with other canceled ballots.
   29  However, if the elector does not return the ballot and the
   30  election official:
   31         (a)(1) Confirms that the supervisor has received the
   32  elector’s vote-by-mail ballot, the elector shall not be allowed
   33  to vote in person. If the elector maintains that he or she has
   34  not returned the vote-by-mail ballot or remains eligible to
   35  vote, the elector shall be provided a provisional ballot as
   36  provided in s. 101.048.
   37         (b)(2) Confirms that the supervisor has not received the
   38  elector’s vote-by-mail ballot, the elector shall be allowed to
   39  vote in person as provided in this code. The elector’s vote-by
   40  mail ballot, if subsequently received, shall not be counted and
   41  shall remain in the mailing envelope, and the envelope shall be
   42  marked “Rejected as Illegal.”
   43         (c)(3) Cannot determine whether the supervisor has received
   44  the elector’s vote-by-mail ballot, the elector may vote a
   45  provisional ballot as provided in s. 101.048.
   46         (2)(a) If the elector chooses not to vote in person as
   47  provided in subsection (1), the elector may vote by personally
   48  delivering his or her completed vote-by-mail ballot to an early
   49  voting site in the elector’s county of residence during the
   50  early voting site’s hours of operation.
   51         (b) The division shall adopt uniform rules for the receipt
   52  of the ballots.
   53         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2017.