Bill Text: IL HB3543 | 2023-2024 | 103rd General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Amends the Election Code. Requires that the envelope of a vote by mail ballot is also endorsed by a resident of the voter's address of registration to verify the voter's identity and residence. Provides that alternatively, if no other person resides at the voter's address of registration or is available to endorse the envelope, a resident of the voter's precinct may endorse the envelope or the voter may provide with the ballot the voter's utility bill or lease to verify identity and residency.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2023-02-17 - Referred to Rules Committee [HB3543 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2023-HB3543-Introduced.html

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103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY State of Illinois 2023 and 2024 HB3543 Introduced , by Rep. Amy L. Grant SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
10 ILCS 5/19-6 from Ch. 46, par. 19-6
Amends the Election Code. Requires that the envelope of a vote by mail ballot is also endorsed by a resident of the voter's address of registration to verify the voter's identity and residence. Provides that alternatively, if no other person resides at the voter's address of registration or is available to endorse the envelope, a resident of the voter's precinct may endorse the envelope or the voter may provide with the ballot the voter's utility bill or lease to verify identity and residency.
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A BILL FOR
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AN ACT concerning elections.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Election Code is amended by changing
Section 19-6 as follows:
(10 ILCS 5/19-6) (from Ch. 46, par. 19-6)
Sec. 19-6. Such vote by mail voter shall make and
subscribe to the certifications provided for in the
application and on the return envelope for the ballot, and
such ballot or ballots shall be folded by such voter in the
manner required to be folded before depositing the same in the
ballot box, and be deposited in such envelope and the envelope
securely sealed. The voter shall then endorse his certificate
upon the back of the envelope. A resident of the voter's
address of registration must also endorse the envelope to
verify the voter's identity and residency. Alternatively, if
no other person resides at the voter's address of registration
or is available to endorse the envelope, a resident of the
voter's precinct may endorse the envelope or the voter may
provide with the ballot the voter's utility bill or lease to
verify identity and residency. The and the envelope shall be
mailed in person by such voter, postage prepaid, to the
election authority issuing the ballot or, if more convenient,

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it may be delivered in person, by either the voter or by any
person authorized by the voter, or by a company licensed as a
motor carrier of property by the Illinois Commerce Commission
under the Illinois Commercial Transportation Law, which is
engaged in the business of making deliveries.
Election authorities shall accept any vote by mail ballot
returned, including ballots returned with insufficient or no
postage. Election authorities may maintain one or more secure
collection sites for the postage-free return of vote by mail
ballots. Any election authority with collection sites shall
collect all ballots returned each day and process them as
required by this Code, including noting the day on which the
ballot was collected. Ballots returned to such collection
sites after close of business shall be dated as delivered the
next day, with the exception of ballots delivered on election
day, which shall be dated as received on election day.
Election authorities shall permit electors to return vote by
mail ballots at any collection site it has established through
the close of polls on election day. All collection sites shall
be secured by locks that may be opened only by election
authority personnel. The State Board of Elections shall
establish additional guidelines for the security of collection
sites.
It shall be unlawful for any person not the voter or a
person authorized by the voter to take the ballot and ballot
envelope of a voter for deposit into the mail unless the ballot

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has been issued pursuant to application by a physically
incapacitated elector under Section 3-3 or a hospitalized
voter under Section 19-13, in which case any employee or
person under the direction of the facility in which the
elector or voter is located may deposit the ballot and ballot
envelope into the mail. If the voter authorized a person to
deliver the ballot to the election authority, the voter and
the person authorized to deliver the ballot shall complete the
authorization printed on the exterior envelope supplied by an
election authority for the return of the vote by mail ballot.
The exterior of the envelope supplied by an election authority
for the return of the vote by mail ballot shall include an
authorization in substantially the following form:
I ............ (voter) authorize ............... to take
the necessary steps to have this ballot delivered promptly to
the office of the election authority.
....................... ........................
Date Signature of voter
...............................................
Printed Name of Authorized Delivery Agent
...............................................
Signature of Authorized Delivery Agency

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...............................................
Date Delivered to the Election Authority
(Source: P.A. 102-1, eff. 4-2-21; 102-668, eff. 11-15-21.)