Section 1 authorizes any eligible voter to vote by absentee ballot. It strikes the specific reasons a voter must now give for being unable to vote in person.

Section 2 strikes from the absentee ballot application any reference to the reason the voter will be unable to vote in person at the polling place on election day.

Section 3 permits a voter who has requested status as an ongoing absentee voter to receive an absentee ballot, rather than just an absentee ballot application, for each election, unless the voter declines to receive an absentee ballot for one or more elections by notifying the county auditor or municipal clerk at least five days before the deadline for delivering absentee ballots. It also requires the Secretary of State to adopt rules governing ongoing absentee voters.

Section 4 authorizes the county auditor or municipal clerk to deliver an absentee ballot to the agent designated under section 6 of a voter who would have difficulty getting to the polls because of health reasons, or who is disabled, or who is a resident of a facility providing assisted living services governed by chapter 144G.

Section 5 limits the requirement that an absentee ballot be witnessed by another registered Minnesota voter or by a notary public to a ballot cast by an individual not previously registered to vote.

Section 6 authorizes a voter who would have difficulty getting to the polls because of health reasons, or who is disabled, or who is a resident of a facility providing assisted living services governed by chapter 144G, to designate an agent to deliver absentee ballots to the voter and return them by 3:00 p.m. on election day. The agent may deliver ballots to no more than three persons in an election.

Section 7 repeals Minnesota Statutes, section 203B.04, subdivision 5, which authorizes an eligible voter who reasonably expects to be permanently unable to go to the polling place on election day because of illness or disability to automatically receive an absentee ballot application before each election.

PSW:ph

1. The substance of S.F. No. 208 has passed the Senate in other forms in previous sessions. It passed the Senate as part of S.F. No. 1483 during the 1994 session but died on General Orders in the House of Representatives. It also passed as part of S.F. No. 35 in the 1995 session but again died on General Orders in the House. In 1997, it passed as part of S.F. No. 78 but was vetoed by the Governor because of other provisions that allowed hospital patients to vote by fax. In 1998, it was presented to the Governor as S.F. No. 2148, which left out the provisions authorizing hospital patients to vote by fax, but was again vetoed by the Governor, this time because it had been supported by only one Republican in the House and "scant more" in the Senate. In 1999, it was introduced as S.F. No. 138, heard and amended in committee, and laid on the table. In 2001, it failed on final passage in the Senate, 32-31. In 2003, it passed the Subcommittee on Elections but was defeated in the Committee on Rules and Administration. In 2004, it was withdrawn from the Committee on Rules and Administration and referred to the Committee on Elections, which passed it to the floor, where it died on General Orders. In 2005, it passed the Committee on Elections as S.F. No 385 (Marty) but was returned at the end of the session. S.F. No. 385 passed the committee again in 2006, and language authorizing the delivery of absentee ballots by commercial shipper and authorizing an agent to deliver absentee ballots to and from a voter in a group home or shelter for battered women was enacted as part of Laws 2006, chapter 242.

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