SB 381

This bill makes changes to election laws pertaining to municipal and county

canvassing procedures, provisional ballot information, the deadline for filing a

petition for recounts, the terms of town officers, and the date of the annual town

meeting, and makes technical revisions to certain election laws. Significant

provisions include:

Municipal canvass

Currently, votes cast at polling places are publicly canvassed on election night

at those polling places except that a municipality may canvass ballots used with an

electronic voting system at a central location on election night and may canvass

absentee ballots at a central location no later than 4 p.m. on the Thursday after an

election. In municipalities having more than one polling place, the municipal board

of canvassers must meet within 24 hours after the polls close to canvass the election.

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