SB 180

This bill makes the following changes to the election laws regarding absentee

voting and voting procedures:

1. Under current law, a municipal clerk may dispatch special voting deputies

to a residential care facility or qualified retirement home so that the occupants of the

facility or home may cast an absentee ballot in person with the special voting

deputies rather than vote in person at the appropriate polling place or request and

complete an absentee ballot by mail. Current law provides that the occupants of a

retirement home that is not a qualified retirement home may vote in person at the

appropriate polling place or request and complete an absentee ballot by mail. Under

current law, a retirement home is a facility occupied as a primary residence by 10 or

more unrelated individuals. A qualified retirement home is a retirement home that

has a significant number of occupants who lack adequate transportation to the

polling place, need assistance in voting, are aged 60 or over, or are indefinitely

confined. Current law also requires that if a retirement home is located within a

municipality on the same grounds as one or more residential care facilities to which

special voting deputies are dispatched, the management of the retirement home

shall provide the names and addresses of the home occupants to the clerk so that the

special voting deputies may verify which electors are eligible to cast absentee ballots

in person with the deputies.

The bill provides that if a retirement home that is not a qualified retirement

home is located within a municipality as part of a multiple-use facility consisting of

one or more qualified retirement homes or residential care facilities to which special

voting deputies are dispatched, the management of the retirement home must

provide the clerk with the names and addresses of the occupants of the home. The

clerk then provides the special voting deputies with the names and addresses of the

verified residents who are eligible to cast absentee ballots in person with the

deputies.

2. Current law allows an individual who registered to vote without providing

proof of residence prior to the enactment of

2013 Act 182

, which took effect on April

4, 2014, to cast a provisional ballot on election day. The ballot is counted only if the

elector provides proof of residence to the municipal clerk or board of election

commissioners no later than 4 p.m. on the Friday after the election. Act 182

eliminated the option to register to vote without proof of residence, but those who

exercised that option prior to April 4, 2014, were given the opportunity to vote by

provisional ballot and provide proof of residence. As of July 1, 2019, those electors

have provided proof of residence and voted or have been removed from the voter

registration database as part of the list maintenance process because they had not

voted in four years and had not responded to mailings from the Elections