Deputy secretary raises fiscal, technical questions about bill requiring reusable ballot containers

Representative Travis Toner introduced House Bill 420, which would change chain-of-custody requirements for ballots and direct use of reusable security containers and serialized seals.

Deputy Secretary of State Erin Hennessy told the committee the bill should carry a fiscal note because of the storage time required for ballots and because sturdier, reusable containers tested in a pilot cost money. “It would probably cost between $15,000 and $20,000 a year for our office if we wanted to purchase sturdy reusable containers,” Hennessy said, noting the office piloted containers with one town that later purchased them for local elections.

Hennessy asked committee members to clarify key terms in the draft: whether “security” refers to locking containers, self-locking containers or lockable containers; whether “serialized” means seals with unique serial numbers; and whether “frangible paper seals” referred to the frangible seals the office currently distributes. She described the current practice: cardboard boxes sealed with strapping tape and a red security tape distributed to local clerks, with records kept by both the clerk and the secretary of state when custody changes hands.

Committee members asked about durability (corners torn when boxes are dropped), whether serialized seals would be stored by the state or towns, and whether serialized tape would materially increase security. Hennessy said the current procedure included paper seal labels that local clerks mark to show box counts (for example, “box 1 of 20”). She also said the office maintains a custody log when it takes boxes from a town.

The public hearing record shows the deputy secretary raised technical and fiscal questions the committee asked staff to clarify; no final committee vote was taken at the hearing.