County and municipal canvassing procedures, provisional ballot information, the deadline for filing a recount petition, terms of town officers, the date of the annual town meeting, and technical revisions to certain election laws

Municipalities must deliver their returns for county, state, and national offices to the appropriate counties by 4 p.m. on the day after each election or, in municipalities where absentee ballots are canvassed by a board of absentee ballot canvassers, by 4 p.m. on the second day after each election. If there are valid absentee ballots that are received by 4 p.m. on the Friday after the election or valid provisional ballots that were cast by electors providing proof of identification by that time, the municipal board of canvassers must reconvene by 9 a.m. on the following Saturday to count the ballots and must adjust the returns accordingly. Municipalities must report their amended returns for county, state, and national elections no later than 4 p.m. on the Saturday following each election. This bill provides that municipal boards of canvassers must meet no later than 9 a.m. on the Monday following each election to canvass or recanvass the returns. If the board of canvassers has met earlier, the board issues amended returns. Under the bill, municipalities must report their returns or amended returns, if any, for county, state, and national offices to the appropriate counties by 4 p.m. on the Monday following each election.

County canvass Currently, each county board of canvassers must meet no later than 9 a.m. on the Thursday after each election to canvass the election returns. Counties must report their returns for each primary other than the partisan primary no later than seven days after the primary is held. This bill provides that each county board of canvassers must meet no later than 9 a.m. on the Tuesday after each election to canvass the election returns. Under the bill, counties must report their returns for each primary other than the partisan primary no later than nine days after the primary is held.

Posting of provisional ballot information This bill directs each municipal clerk and board of election commissioners, as soon as possible after the polls close on election night, to post at their offices and on the Internet at a site announced by the clerk or board before the polls open, a statement of the number of outstanding provisional ballots that have been cast by electors of the municipality in the election as of the closing hour for all polling places in the municipality that cannot be counted as of that hour because the electors have not satisfied relevant voting requirements. Currently, municipal clerks must post similar information in the same manner concerning the number of absentee ballots returned and the number of absentee ballots mailed or transmitted but not returned, but need not post provisional ballot information.

Deadline for recount petitions to be filed Currently, the latest time that a petition for a recount may be filed is not earlier than the time of completion of the municipal or county canvass at which the election is determined prior to any necessary reopening for the counting of valid absentee and provisional ballots and not later than 5 p.m. on the third business day following the last meeting day of the board of canvassers that makes the determination prior to any necessary reopening. For state and national offices and statewide referenda, the latest time that a petition may be filed is 5 p.m. on the third business day after the last meeting day of the last county board of canvassers to make a determination with respect to the office or referendum. Under this bill, the latest time that a petition for a recount may be filed is the third business day following the last meeting day of the board of canvassers that makes the determination following completion of any necessary reopening for the counting of provisional and absentee ballots. For state and national offices and statewide referenda, the latest time that a petition may be filed is determined, as under current law, with reference to the last meeting day of the last county board of canvassers to make a determination with respect to the office or referendum.

Terms of town officers; date of annual town meeting Currently, the terms of town officers begin on the second Tuesday in April. The annual town meeting is held on the second Tuesday in April unless a town votes to change the date to a date that is no later than the tenth day following the second Tuesday in April. Under this bill, the terms of town officers begin on the third Tuesday in April. In the year in which this bill becomes law, there will be a seven-day period from the end of the prior terms until the beginning of the new terms, and towns fill the resulting vacancies during this period in accordance with current law.

The bill also changes the date of the annual town meeting to the third Tuesday in April unless a town votes to change the date to a date that is no later than the tenth day following the third Tuesday in April.