Bill > A5166

Introduced Session

This bill establishes in, but not of, the Department of State a task force to be known as the "Voting Improvement Task Force." The task force would consist of nine members: (1) the Secretary of State, ex officio, or the secretary's designee; (2) five county election officials to be appointed, one each, by the Governor, Senate President, Senate Minority Leader, Speaker of the General Assembly, and the Assembly Minority Leader with no two appointees coming from the same county; and (3) three members of the public with experience in vote-by-mail processing or election reform advocacy to be appointed, one each, by the Governor, Senate President, and Speaker of the General Assembly. The bill directs the task force to: (1) evaluate the vote-by-mail process in the State; (2) examine ways to process and count vote-by-mail and provisional ballots more quickly in the State; (3) explore the feasibility of implementing ranked-choice voting in the State; and (4) research additional methods of expanding and improving voting by mail in the State. The task force is required to hold at least three public hearings, one each in the Northern, Central, and Southern parts of the State, to receive testimony from the public and elections experts on matters concerning voting by mail. The bill directs the task force to report its findings, conclusions, and recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature no later than one year following its first meeting. The task force would expire upon the submission of its report.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Daniel Benson (D)*,  Herbert Conaway (D)*,  Andrew Zwicker (D)*,  Thomas Giblin (D), 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly State and Local Government Committee (on 12/16/2020)