Bill > A5165

Introduced Session

This bill directs the Secretary of State to establish a temporary grant program for improving the vote-by-mail process in the State. The purpose of the grant program would be for improving a county board's paper ballot counting capabilities, including the counting of vote-by-mail and provisional ballots. Under the bill, in establishing the grant program, the Secretary of State is required to: (1) survey each county board of elections to collect information regarding procedural and technological problems incurred during the 2020 General Election hindering the paper ballot counting process; (2) analyze the results of the survey and develop a plan to address the shortcomings that identifies concrete categories of improvement areas that can be undertaken to improve the vote-by-mail process; (3) develop guidelines and procedures for the submission of grant applications, and criteria for the evaluation of such applications; (4) establish terms and conditions for the awarding of a grant under this section, and monitor grant recipients' compliance with the terms and conditions; and (5) require the recipient of a grant to report to the secretary information relating to its use of grant funds. The bill also requires the Secretary of State to submit a written report to the Governor and the Legislature on the effectiveness of the grant program in improving paper ballot counting capabilities in the State. Under the bill, $10,000,000 is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of State to effectuate the provisions of the bill.

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)