Bill Text: FL S0726 | 2017 | Regular Session | Comm Sub

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

---

Bill Title: Vote-by-mail Ballots

Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Failed) 2017-05-03 - Laid on Table [S0726 Detail]

Download: Florida-2017-S0726-Comm_Sub.html

---

       Florida Senate - 2017                              CS for SB 726
       
       
        
       By the Committee on Ethics and Elections; and Senators Powell
       and Campbell
       
       
       
       
       582-03407-17                                           2017726c1
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to vote-by-mail ballots; amending s.
    3         101.69, F.S.; providing supervisors of elections the
    4         option to allow an elector to vote by personally
    5         delivering his or her completed vote-by-mail ballot to
    6         an early voting site in the elector’s county of
    7         residence during the site’s hours of operation;
    8         requiring the Division of Elections to adopt rules;
    9         providing an effective date.
   10          
   11  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   12  
   13         Section 1. Section 101.69, Florida Statutes, is amended to
   14  read:
   15         101.69 Voting in person; return of vote-by-mail ballot.—
   16         (1) The provisions of this code shall not be construed to
   17  prohibit any elector from voting in person at the elector’s
   18  precinct on the day of an election or at an early voting site,
   19  notwithstanding that the elector has requested a vote-by-mail
   20  ballot for that election. An elector who has returned a voted
   21  vote-by-mail ballot to the supervisor, however, is deemed to
   22  have cast his or her ballot and is not entitled to vote another
   23  ballot or to have a provisional ballot counted by the county
   24  canvassing board. An elector who has received a vote-by-mail
   25  ballot and has not returned the voted ballot to the supervisor,
   26  but desires to vote in person, shall return the ballot, whether
   27  voted or not, to the election board in the elector’s precinct or
   28  to an early voting site. The returned ballot shall be marked
   29  “canceled” by the board and placed with other canceled ballots.
   30  However, if the elector does not return the ballot and the
   31  election official:
   32         (a)(1) Confirms that the supervisor has received the
   33  elector’s vote-by-mail ballot, the elector shall not be allowed
   34  to vote in person. If the elector maintains that he or she has
   35  not returned the vote-by-mail ballot or remains eligible to
   36  vote, the elector shall be provided a provisional ballot as
   37  provided in s. 101.048.
   38         (b)(2) Confirms that the supervisor has not received the
   39  elector’s vote-by-mail ballot, the elector shall be allowed to
   40  vote in person as provided in this code. The elector’s vote-by
   41  mail ballot, if subsequently received, shall not be counted and
   42  shall remain in the mailing envelope, and the envelope shall be
   43  marked “Rejected as Illegal.”
   44         (c)(3) Cannot determine whether the supervisor has received
   45  the elector’s vote-by-mail ballot, the elector may vote a
   46  provisional ballot as provided in s. 101.048.
   47         (2)(a) If the supervisor in the elector’s county of
   48  residence provides written notice to the division no later than
   49  the 30th day before an election, the elector may also vote by
   50  personally delivering his or her completed vote-by-mail ballot
   51  to an early voting site in the county during the early voting
   52  site’s hours of operation.
   53         (b) The division shall adopt uniform rules for the receipt
   54  of the ballots.
   55         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2017.