Committee advances strike-all on House Bill 177 to allow in-person absentee ballots to go directly into OMR machines

A state Senate elections committee approved a strike-all amendment to House Bill 177, advancing language that would allow in-person absentee ballots to be cast directly into optical mark-recognition (OMR) voting machines rather than placed into envelopes.

The committee's action replaces the bill's previous text with the committee's early-voting language and removes an earlier provision related to ballot harvesting that committee members said had already been addressed in last year’s legislation. Committee members also said the bill retains the existing requirement for absentee excuses.

A committee presenter described the change as a substitution of the sponsor’s in-person absentee provisions into the vehicle of House Bill 177 and said the strike-all removed a now-unnecessary provision on ballot harvesting. Senator Blackwell asked whether the bill’s “working” excuse was intended to allow absentee voting when a person is working on Election Day; the presenter confirmed that it was an exception to permit voting when working that day.

The committee chair put the motion, recorded as “Title sufficient; do pass, strike-all.” Committee members responded in the affirmative and the chair announced that the measure would be reported out of committee. The transcript does not include a roll-call vote count or names tied to individual aye or no votes.

No statutory citations or implementing timelines were provided during the committee discussion. The presenter also noted the bill had similar language moving through the House and that the committee kept both vehicles alive in hopes of resolving differences in conference.

The committee did not direct staff to prepare additional analysis during the meeting; committee discussion focused on the substitution, the removal of the ballot-harvesting clause, and confirmation that absentee-excuse rules remain in place.