Bill > SF2077

Introduced Session

This bill relates to the casting of ballots by absent voters. The bill requires an absentee ballot that is mailed to a voter to be enclosed in an unsealed affidavit envelope and with or in an unsealed return envelope, which shall then be enclosed in the delivery envelope, which shall not include a return address. If the ballot cannot be folded so that all the votes on the ballot will be hidden, the bill requires the commissioner to also send a secrecy envelope. The bill requires a registered voter to subscribe to an affidavit on an affidavit envelope by signing the envelope and writing the voter’s voter verification number. The bill adds a requirement that an affidavit envelope be considered to contain a defect if the voter verification number on the envelope does not match the voter verification number on file for the voter. The bill strikes certain requirements regarding what materials a commissioner shall include with an absentee ballot and instead requires a commissioner to put the same serial number on the affidavit, return, and delivery envelopes. The bill requires all mailed absentee ballots to include an affidavit envelope. The bill also requires the absentee and special voters precinct board to reject an absentee ballot if the affidavit envelope does not include the voter’s voter verification number. The bill changes the timeline for the return of absentee ballots. The bill requires absentee ballots to be delivered to the office of the county commissioner of elections by 5:00 p.m. on the day before election day. Under current law, absentee ballots must be delivered to the office of the county commissioner of elections not later than the time polls close on election day. This change does not apply to absentee ballots of confined persons delivered other than by mail or to absentee ballots of members of the U.S. armed forces.

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Sandy Salmon (R)*, 

Subcommittee: Rozenboom, Schultz, and Winckler. S.J. 133. (on 01/22/2026)

Official Document