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Secretary of State warns of added burden as committee weighs standard clerk absentee-ballot worksheet
Summary
Representative Claudine Burnham proposed HB306 to require a standardized clerk's absentee-ballot worksheet to track absentee ballots throughout the process. Proponents said the worksheet increases transparency and audit granularity; Deputy Secretary Brendan O'Donnell and the Secretary of State's office warned it would impose unnecessary burden on local election officials given existing reconciliation procedures.
The Senate Election Law and Municipal Affairs Committee heard extended testimony and debate on House Bill 306, a bill that would create a standardized clerk's absentee'ballot worksheet tracking absentee ballots obtained, mailed, returned, spoiled, issued and remaining.
Representative Claudine Burnham, the bill's sponsor, told the committee the worksheet mirrors the moderator's same'day worksheet and would "ensure our election integrity is balanced and accountable with all paper ballots." Burnham said clerks already track many of these items locally and that the bill simply makes the accounting transparent and uniform across municipalities.
Proponents framed the change as an audit improvement: Burnham said the form would record absentee ballots received, mailed or delivered, remaining not returned, issued on election day, cast on election day and remaining at the close of election, plus lines for rare items like spoiled absentee ballots. She said the change grew out of multi'year conversations with clerks and election integrity advocates.
Deputy Secretary Brendan O'Donnell and Secretary of State staff pressed back in substantive testimony. The Secretary of State's office "convey[ed] his strong concern about this bill," O'Donnell said on the record. He described the many reconciliation steps local election officials already perform on election night (including inventory and count methods, pre'election certificates, returns of votes, long tapes and post'election certificates) and argued the new worksheet would add a burdensome obligation to officials who already have significant election duties.
O'Donnell said the existing processes allow officials to reconcile absentee ballots through pre'existing mechanisms (applications, marked checklists and moderator certificates), and he warned that the proposed new certificate duplicates work without materially improving security. Several senators asked detailed operational questions about where lines should appear on the forms and whether parts of the worksheet belong on the clerk certificate or the moderator certificate; proponents said some minor drafting changes could address those concerns.
What happens next: The public hearing record closed after extended discussion and the Secretary of State's office recorded its opposition in the hearing transcript. Committee members requested follow'up and additional conversations; the committee took no roll'call vote in the public hearing record.
Why it matters: The bill pits two priorities that surfaced repeatedly in the hearing: proponents seeking more granular audit trails and transparency for absentee ballots, and the Secretary of State's office raising practical capacity concerns for municipal officials and urging reliance on existing reconciliation tools rather than adding new mandatory forms.
