AB 18

Currently, election officials are generally required to be qualified electors of the

municipality in which the officials serve. In addition, election officials who serve at

a polling place are generally required to be qualified electors of the ward for which

the polling place is established, whenever a municipality is divided into wards.

However, certain election officials need not be electors of any particular ward but

must be qualified electors of the municipality in which they serve: special

registration deputies who register electors at a polling place on election day; election

officials who are appointed to work at a polling place that serves more than one ward;

election officials who are reassigned by a municipal clerk or board of election

commissioners to correct staffing deficiencies; and election officials who are

appointed to fill a temporary or permanent vacancy. If the municipal clerk or the

executive director of a board of election commissioners or a deputy to the clerk or

executive director serves as a special registration deputy or is appointed to work at

a polling place to fill a vacancy in an inspector position, the clerk, executive director,

or deputy need not be a resident of the municipality in which he or she serves.

Officials who are appointed to work at a polling place that serves more than one ward

must be electors of one of the wards served by the polling place. In addition, a high

school pupil who is 16 or 17 years of age may serve as an inspector (poll worker) at

the polling place serving his or her residence.

Currently, political party officers may submit the names of nominees to serve

as election officials, other than as special registration deputies, at polling places. If

no nominations or insufficient nominations are submitted, municipalities may

appoint election officials on a nonpartisan basis. Twice as many nominations are

submitted as there are positions to be filled. Any nominee may be designated as a

first choice nominee, and a municipality must appoint a first choice nominee unless

the Government Accountability Board (GAB) permits nonappointment for good

cause shown.

This bill provides that an individual who serves as an election official at a

polling place on election day need be an elector only of a county in which the

municipality where the official serves is located, except as the law currently permits

the individual to reside elsewhere. The bill makes no change, however, to the

residency requirement applicable to a high school pupil who serves as an inspector.

The bill also permits, for up to 50 percent of the positions to be filled, a political

party officer to specify the ward for which an individual is nominated to serve. The

bill requires municipalities to appoint individuals who are nominated to serve in a

specified ward in the ward for which they are nominated for at least 50 percent of the

positions to be filled, unless GAB or the attorney general permits nonappointment

for good cause shown. The bill permits a nominee whose nonappointment is

authorized by GAB to appeal the decision of GAB to the attorney general, who may

affirm or reverse the decision of GAB.