Rep. Jason Nemes, with the support of Secretary of State Michael Adams, has introduced a bill to expand voting access while at the same time lowering election costs for counties.
House Bill 596 was filed by Nemes on Monday. It includes the following provisions, as outlined in a press release from the SOS office:
- Extends polling hours from 6 PM to 7 PM local time
- Extends the voter registration deadline so prospective voters have more time to register before an election
- Makes voting by mail easier by permitting the choice of absentee voting in person or by mail
- Permits additional reasons for early voting: employment as “essential service personnel” such as first responders; bereavement; serious injury or illness of a family member
- Permits counties to establish “vote centers,” where any voter registered in a particular county may vote, rather than having to vote at his/her precinct. This benefits voters who may work on one side of the county and have a long commute home to the other side of the county.
- Allows counties who don’t adopt vote centers to more easily consolidate multi-precinct voting at one location
- Allows voters more time to change party affiliation prior to a primary election so they can vote in their preferred party’s primary
- Allows registered independents to serve as poll workers, addressing our poll worker crisis
- Permits poll workers to sign up for half-day shifts, further addressing our poll worker crisis
- Allows children and parents to obtain a medical-emergency absentee ballot, rather than just the voter and the voter’s spouse
- Reduces wait time for early voting by allowing a county clerk to place early-voting machines in any of the clerk’s office locations
SOS Adams states that he ran on a platform of making it “easy to vote and hard to cheat.” He notes that his “hard to cheat” platform plank is embodied in the voter photo ID bill, and that this bill is his “easy to vote” platform plank.
The bill has been assigned to the Elections, Constitutional Amendments, & Intergovernmental Affairs committee in the House.
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