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Committee advances bill to let in-person absentee voters cast ballots into OMR machines, ending named envelopes
Summary
SB 25 87 would allow in-person absentee voters to cast ballots directly into optical mark recognition (OMR) machines rather than using named absentee envelopes, aim to improve secrecy and streamline clerks' work; the committee approved the committee substitute and asked for clarifications about affidavits and penalties.
The Senate Elections Committee advanced Senate Bill 25 87, a measure intended to modernize in-person absentee voting by allowing voters to cast their ballot directly into an optical mark recognition (OMR) machine instead of using an absentee envelope with the voter’s name on it.
The chair described the change as designed to help circuit clerks and enhance ballot secrecy: in-person absentee voters would be issued an actual ballot, confirm their identity or ballot ID, and feed the ballot into an OMR machine that can return ballots for corrections and secure tabulation. "We would like to see happen ... when a person goes into absentee vote, they are printed a ballot and it's an actual ballot," the chair said, adding that ballots cast this way would not be tabulated until polls close.
Senator Taylor asked whether this would create "live totals" posted in advance; the chair replied that no tabulation or running totals would be available until after the polls close at 7 p.m. The committee also discussed administrative details: whether voters would sign an affidavit or indicate an administrative excuse in the poll book, and what penalties (if any) would apply for falsifying an excuse; the chair said the draft contains no new specific penalties beyond existing fraud remedies.
The chair said the bill adds several negotiated excuses (work obligations, caretaking responsibilities and deployment/state-of-emergency excuses mentioned in prior conference reports) and proposed allowing a person who brings a disabled voter to also vote at that time. Committee members indicated remaining edits were negotiable; the committee adopted the committee substitute and will report the bill out.
The committee recorded the motion as title sufficient, due pass for the committee substitute and advanced the measure by voice vote.
