HB2325 - 561R

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:

Section 1. Title 16, chapter 4, article 8, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended by adding section 16-549.01, to read:

START_STATUTE16-549.01. Special election boards; detained voters; violation; classification; definition

A. Notwithstanding any other law, a qualified elector who is in pretrial detention in a jail shall be allowed to make a signed written request to the county recorder or other officer in charge of elections to have a ballot personally delivered to the elector by a special election board at the elector's place of pretrial detention within the county or other political subdivision. The signed written request must include the elector's full name, signature and place of detention and shall be made not later than ten calendar days before the election in which the elector wishes to vote or it is invalid. A jail official shall deliver a copy of the signed written request to the county recorder or other officer in charge of elections within five calendar days after receiving the request. The method of voting shall be as follows:

1. The jail shall make provisions for a secured, restricted and private area to be set aside for the express purpose of allowing detained electors to vote. Cameras shall not be allowed in the area, without regard to whether they are recording, except that the elections official and political party designees shall be Allowed to bring with them their cellular telephones. the jail may require the pOLITICAL party DESIGNEES' CELLULAR telephones to be kept in a secure location, but the jail must provide access to the cellular telephones immediately on request.

2. The county recorder or other officer in charge of elections shall provide and send a full-time departmental employee to jails to facilitate voting in strict compliance with this section.

3. The county recorder or other officer in charge of elections shall notify the county chairpersons of the three largest county political parties in the state and the state chairpersons of those parties at least sixty calendar days before the elections official's visit to the jail as prescribed by this section to allow such qualified electors to vote and shall provide the political party chairpersons with copies of all signed written requests from qualified electors in their possession, the date and time that the visit will occur and instructions to facilitate the attendance of the political party chairperson's designees. The county chairperson of each political party and of each such state party shall be allowed to designate one person of their choosing to accompany the elections official visiting the jail. The county recorder or other officer in charge of elections shall be notified of the names of the designees not later than ten calendar days before the time set for the detained qualified elector to vote. The party designees shall be allowed the same access to the qualified electors as the elections official. The county recorder or other officer in charge of elections or any other official shall not reject the designee of a political party for any reason other than a felony conviction within the preceding ten years. A person who is in pretrial detention and who is not a qualified elector shall not be permitted to vote. A maximum of three dates for voting per election cycle shall be provided for detainees in a given facility, AND NOTICE OF ALL DATES SHALL BE GIVEN TO THE POLITICAL PARTY CHAIRPERSONS NOt LATER THAN NINETY DAYS before THE ELECTION. All notifications required by this paragraph and paragraph 8 of this subsection shall be provided by both certified and electronic mail.

4. Before being given a ballot, the person voting must present to the elections official and the political party designees identification that complies with section 16-579, subsection A that is sufficient to vote a complete, non-federal only ballot. The elections official and the political party designees shall verify that the person is a duly qualified elector before providing the person with a ballot and shall be allowed to bring into the jail such papers and equipment as are needed to satisfy themselves that the person voting is a duly qualified elector. Federal only ballots shall not be provided to persons voting from jail.

5. The elections official and political party designees shall be allowed sufficient access to truthfully execute the following declaration:

I certify that the affiant exhibited the enclosed ballot to me unmarked. In my presence, the affiant personally and privately marked such ballot in such manner that neither I, nor any other person, was able to see the affiant vote (or it was marked by an elections official according to the affiant's instructions) and enclosed or sealed it in this envelope. The affiant was not solicited or advised by any person to vote for or against any candidate or measure.

__________________

(Signature and title of elections official/political party designee and political party of that designee.)

A ballot that lacks the signed and written certifications of the elections official and all designees is presumptively invalid. The executed certifications shall thereafter accompany the ballot envelope along with the names of the political party designees. The political party designees shall be allowed to photograph their own certifications once they have left the jail.

6. The person voting shall be required to sign the following ballot affidavit:

I, ____________, do solemnly swear that I am a qualified elector of the _________________ precinct of the county of _________________________, state of Arizona. I further swear that I personally voted the enclosed ballot or that it was marked according to my instructions because I was unable to do so.

7. The elections official and political party designees shall not speak to the detained person after the detained person has been given a ballot until the ballot is sealed in the envelope. During this time, jail officials shall speak to the detained person only to give commands unrelated to voting and only if absolutely necessary.

8. The elections official shall take the envelopes for all ballots received from detained voters directly to the elections office. The political party designees shall be allowed to accompany the elections official. If a voter resides outside of the county, the ballot shall be hand delivered to the elections office of the appropriate county by a full-time employee of the recorder or other officer in charge of elections. The political party chairpersons shall be provided notice at least ten days in advance of any ballots being transported to the appropriate county elections office and shall be allowed to designate persons of their choosing to accompany the ballots according to paragraph 3 of this subsection. The recorder or other officer in charge of elections shall be allowed to make only one delivery each election cycle to election offices outside of the county.

9. The elections official shall make and maintain chain of custody documentation sufficient to account for every movement of every ballot by every person handling the ballot prescribed by this subsection from the time it leaves the office of the county recorder or other officer in charge of elections until it is received by the appropriate county recorder or other officer in charge of elections.

B. Jail officials shall take the steps necessary to facilitate strict compliance with this section, including ASSISTING qualified electors to obtain IDENTIFICATION that complies with section 16-579. Jail officials shall provide the security reasonably necessary to facilitate safe compliance with this section to the extent that doing so does not conflict with strict compliance with this section.

C. Strict compliance with every portion of this section is required and ballots cast in violation of any part of this section are invalid.

D. A government employee or contractor who violates this section is guilty of a class 3 felony. This subsection is not intended to affect any other relief that may exist for a violation of this section. Any qualified elector in this state may bring a special action to enforce strict compliance with this section.

E. No portion of this section is severable from any other portion of this section. If any part of this section is found to be invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, the remainder of this section shall be null and void and persons in detention shall not be permitted to vote.

F. Federal detention facilities may allow voting in strict compliance with this section. If they decline to do so, individuals detained at federal facilities shall not be permitted to vote.

G. For the purposes of this section, "jail" means any facility of a state, county or municipality in which persons who have not been convicted of a crime are detained. END_STATUTE