Bill > S1307

Introduced Session

The purpose of this bill is to require voters who vote in person at a polling place, whether during the early voting period or on election day, to vote by paper ballot only, except in certain circumstances. Under the bill, a limited number of voting machines would be available for use by individuals with disabilities. The bill requires a five-year phase-in of the use of paper ballots and open source voting technology during the conduct of elections in this State. The bill specifies that within five years all counties in this State must (1) use paper ballots and optical scanners that read hand-marked paper ballots and (2) use voting equipment certified for use by the Secretary of State that has open-source software technology. As used in the bill, the term "open-source" means the complete source code for the software is available to the public, under the terms of a license, to use, modify, or distribute freely without payment of royalties or other considerations. Under the bill, the paper ballot voting system must: (1) provide the local elections officials with the ability to scan and tabulate a hand-marked paper ballot prepared by the voter at the polling place; (2) provide a record of votes cast for the election; (3) adhere to any federal laws or regulations concerning voting equipment; and (4) adhere to any other requirements the Secretary of State deems appropriate for the implementation of a paper ballot voting system in this State. The bill directs the Secretary of State to require that each county board of elections or superintendent of elections, as the case may be, to maintain all paper ballots cast in an election for a period of not less than two years following the date of an election. Thereafter, the ballots may be retained in accordance with procedures set forth by the Secretary of State. The bill also requires that prior to verification of the official election results by a county clerk or superintendent of elections or a municipal clerk, as the case may be, the county clerk or superintendent of elections or municipal clerk must: (1) compare and reconcile the record of votes casts provided by the optical scanners or other voting equipment certified by the State with the number of voters who signed in at the polling place and who voted by mail-in, provisional, and military or overseas ballots; (2) compare and reconcile precinct totals with the totals for that election to ensure that the totals add up to the correct sum; and (3) review, and account for, all optical scanner or other voting equipment memory cards or flash drives to ensure the memory cards or flash drives are properly loaded into the tally server. Under the bill, after a voter is deemed qualified to vote in an election, the voter would receive a paper ballot, which would be completed by the voter in a voting booth. Once completed, the ballot would be scanned electronically for technical errors, if such equipment is available, to ascertain whether the ballot contains any technical errors that would disqualify it from being counted. If such an error exists, it would be returned to the voter for correction or if determined to be spoiled, a new ballot would be given to the voter to enable that person to correct any technical error that would otherwise disqualify the voter's vote from being counted. If a voted ballot is scanned electronically and no technical error is found, the ballot would be considered valid and would be counted. The bill also makes an appropriation and provides that the cost of replacing exiting direct recording electronic voting machines with paper ballots and the voting equipment necessary to tabulate those ballots would be paid for by the State upon application for reimbursement by a county governing body to the Secretary of State and approval of the application by the Director of the Division of Budget and Accounting. The bill also repeals various statutes concerning certain requirements and the certification of electronic voting machines and the purchasing and delivery of those voting machines.

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Joe Pennacchio (R)*, 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee (on 01/13/2026)

Official Document