SB 524

This bill authorizes a municipality to allow its electors to vote before election

day by using an electronic voting machine to cast an in-person absentee ballot. If

a municipality enacts an ordinance or adopts a resolution to implement this method,

and the Elections Commission certifies that the municipality is capable of

implementation, an elector may vote before election day at the municipal clerk's

office by completing his or her ballot and casting the ballot using an electronic voting

system. The period for this option is the same as for making applications for

in-person absentee ballots: beginning no earlier than the third Monday preceding

the election and ending no later than 7 p.m. on the Friday preceding the election.

The votes are not tabulated before election day, but the municipal clerk publishes the

daily tally of the total number of ballots cast before election day on the municipality's

Internet site. The current law that applies to voting on election day with regard to

election observers and assisting the disabled also applies to voting as provided under

the bill.

The bill also requires the Elections Commission to certify electronic voting

systems that include a report function capable of reporting write-in votes by

scanning the ballots and electronically capturing the write-in votes.