SB 631

Retirement homes and residential care facilities

Personal care voting assistants

Under current law, absentee voting in person inside residential care facilities

and qualified retirement homes may be conducted only if the municipal clerk or

board of election commissioners adopts procedures allowing voters residing in such

a facility or home to apply for, receive, and complete an absentee ballot by means of

special voting deputies dispatched to the facility or home for that purpose. A

municipality that appoints special voting deputies must appoint at least two special

voting deputies for the municipality, and the deputies must be eligible voters of the

county where the municipality is located. In addition, the two deputies designated

to visit each qualified retirement home and residential care facility must be affiliated

with different political parties whenever deputies representing different parties are

available. Current law prohibits individuals employed at a residential care facility

or qualified retirement home in the municipality, or any member of the individual's

immediate family, from serving as a special voting deputy.

Under this bill, during a public health emergency or an incident of infectious

disease that results in restricting entry to a residential care facility or qualified

retirement home, the municipal clerk or board of election commissioners may

appoint any individual who is employed at a residential care facility or qualified

retirement home in the municipality to serve as a personal care voting assistant. A

personal care voting assistant need not be an eligible voter of the county but must

be an eligible voter of this state. A personal care voting assistant must complete a

two-hour online training prescribed by the Elections Commission and take the same

oath of office as a special voting deputy appointed under current law. In addition,

the two personal care voting assistants appointed to each facility or home must be

affiliated with different political parties whenever assistants representing different

parties are available. The bill also prohibits a personal care voting assistant from

assisting in or facilitating the registration of any resident of a residential care facility

or qualified retirement home.

Under the bill, an employee of the facility or home acting as a personal care

voting assistant must complete documentation, on a form prescribed by the Elections

Commission, that provides the assistant's name, the name of the voter, and the type

of assistance provided to the voter. The form must be separate from the absentee

ballot certificate, but the information contained on the form must also be included

on the absentee ballot return envelope. The administrator of the home or facility

must deliver the forms to the municipal clerk or board of election commissioners and

may arrange for an election official, other than a personal care voting assistant, to

collect and return the absentee ballots to the clerk or board. Otherwise, all absentee

ballots completed with the assistance of a personal care voting assistant must be

mailed to the clerk or board.