2001 SESSION

01-0464

03/09

HOUSE BILL 575

COMMITTEE: Election Law

ANALYSIS

This bill amends the affidavit that a voter must execute to obtain an absentee ballot because of absence to require certification that the person may be absent and unable to vote. Current law requires certification that the person will be absent and unable to vote.

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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.

Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]

Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.

01-0464

03/09

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand One

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

1 Absentee Voting; Absence; Affidavit. Amend RSA 657:7, II(a) to read as follows:

(a) Absence from City or Town. A person voting by absentee ballot because of absence from the city or town in which he or she is entitled to vote shall fill out and sign the following certificate:

I do hereby certify under the penalties of perjury that I am a duly qualified voter in the city or town of ____________, New Hampshire, in ward ____________; that I [will] may be absent on election day from said city or town and [will] may be unable to vote in person; that I have carefully read (or had read to me because I am blind) the instructions forwarded to me with the ballot herein enclosed and that I personally marked the ballot within and sealed it in this envelope (or had assistance in marking the ballot and sealing it in this envelope because I am blind).

(Signature) ______________________________

2 Town Elections; Absentee Voting; Affidavit. Amend RSA 669:27, III to read as follows:

III. Envelopes of sufficient size to contain the ballots specified in paragraph I, on which shall be printed the following affidavit:

Absence. A person voting by absentee ballot because of absence from the place in which he or she is entitled to vote shall fill out and sign the following certificate:

I do hereby certify, under the penalties of perjury, that I am a duly qualified voter in the town (city, village district, school district) of __________, New Hampshire, that I [will] may be absent on election day from said town (city, village district, school district) and [will] may be unable to vote in person; that I have carefully read the instructions forwarded to me with the ballot herein enclosed and that I personally marked the within ballot and enclosed and sealed it in this envelope.

(Signature) ____________________________

Absence Because of Religious Observance or Physical Disability. A person voting by absentee ballot because of religious observance or physical disability shall fill out and sign the following certificate:

I do hereby certify, under the penalties of perjury, that I am a duly qualified voter in the town (city, village district, school district) of _____________, New Hampshire, that I will be observing a religious commitment which prevents me from voting in person, or that on account of physical disability I am unable to vote in person; that I have carefully read the instructions forwarded to me

with the ballot herein enclosed, and that I personally marked the within ballot and sealed it in this envelope.

(Signature) _________________________

3 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.