Bill > A498

Introduced Session

This bill requires that, when opening and canvassing mail-in ballots, representatives from each political party that has membership on the respective county board of elections be present. Under current law, the political parties with membership on the county boards of elections are the Republican and Democratic parties. Under current law, a quorum of the county board of elections, which includes an equal number of members from the two political parties that received the highest number of votes at the last election for members of the General Assembly, must be present during the opening and canvassing of mail-in ballots. The bill also makes it mandatory that county boards of elections begin opening mail-in ballots to prepare for canvassing five days prior to the election. Under current law, county boards of elections are allowed to begin this process up to five days before the election, but not required. The bill requires that county boards of elections adopt certain minimum security standards to safeguard mail-in ballots between the time the ballots are opened and the time the ballots are canvassed. Specifically, the county boards must ensure that the mail-in ballots are stored in a secure area that includes at least one of the following security measures: (1) a lock that requires one key from an authorized election official from each political party having membership on the respective county board of elections to open; (2) video surveillance of the storage area entrance; or (3) a paper or electronic log of individuals who accessed the storage area. The bill also makes it a crime of the second degree to access, or attempt to access, the secure area in which mail-in ballots are stored without the presence of the appropriate election officials representing each of the political parties having membership on the respective county board of elections. A crime of the second degree is punishable by imprisonment for five to 10 years, a fine of up to $150,000, or both. Finally, the bill upgrades certain existing election-related crimes from a crime of the third degree to a crime of the second degree. These crimes include: voting twice, changing a ballot after it has been deposited into a ballot drop box, adding or attempting to add ballots to those legally polled with the intent to change the results of the election, destroying or attempting to destroy ballots, poll lists, or ballot boxes, or otherwise interferes with the officers holding the election or conducting the canvass. A crime of the third degree is punishable by imprisonment for three to five years, a fine of up to $15,000, or both.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Al Barlas (R)*,  Dawn Fantasia (R)*,  Alex Sauickie (R),  Gerry Scharfenberger (R), 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly State and Local Government Committee (on 01/13/2026)

Official Document