Substitute for Raised H.B. No. 5001
Session Year 2026
 

AN ACT CONCERNING ABSENTEE VOTING FOR ALL AND VARIOUS OTHER REFORMS RELATED TO THE ADMINISTRATION OF ELECTIONS.

To (1) remove the statutory restrictions on eligibility for absentee voting, (2) allow municipalities to provide by charter for quadrennial municipal elections, (3) authorize the Secretary of the State to recommend changes to procedures for in-person voter registration of disabled individuals, (4) permit assistant municipal clerks running for municipal clerk to perform their official duties on the day of an election, (5) provide for jointly temporarily relieving the registrars of voters of a municipality, (6) allow for Attorney General involvement in matters relating to subpoenas, warrants, other requests and alleged interference at elections, (7) permit the use of high-speed voting tabulators for recanvasses, (8) replace certain references to the Federal Election Commission with references to the Election Assistance Commission, (9) allow seventeen-year-olds who will attain the age of eighteen by the day of an election to vote early or by absentee at such election, (10) address applicability and Americans with Disabilities Act compliance of party rules filed with the Secretary, (11) provide for electronic ballot delivery and return for certain absentee voters, (12) amend the retrieval requirement for absentee ballots from drop boxes, (13) modify the availability time of primary petitions for certain municipal candidates, (14) amend the reasons for which, and the process by which, municipal clerks may be removed from office, (15) amend deadlines for the submission of municipal election returns and the conduct of post-election audits, (16) implement the recommendations of the risk-limiting audits working group, (17) authorize the State Elections Enforcement Commission to also investigate violations of elections-related regulations and not just violations of elections-related statutes, and (18) repeal a training requirement for registrars of voters.

Introduced by: