Am.
Sub. H.B. 3
126th General Assembly
The Conference Committee recommends the bill
as passed by the Senate with the following changes:
|
House |
Senate |
Conference Committee |
Voter identification |
Requires first time voters
who register to vote by mail without providing specified information to
provide identification at a polling place before casting a ballot (R.C. 3505.18). |
Requires all voters to
provide a specified form of identification at a polling place before casting
a ballot (R.C. 3505.18). |
Postpones until June 1,
2006, the requirement from the Senate-passed version that all voters provide
specified forms of identification at a polling place before casting a ballot (Section 6). |
Provisional ballots |
Establishes provisional
ballots for the purposes of all elections conducted in this state; specifies
the voters eligible to cast those ballots; and establishes the processes for
casting, determining the validity of, and counting those ballots (R.C. 3505.18, 3505.181, 3505.182, and 3505.183). |
Modifies the House-passed
version regarding (1) the voters eligible to cast provisional ballots, (2)
the processes for casting, determining the validity of, and storing those
ballots, and (3) the affirmation form that provisional voters are required to
execute (R.C. 3505.18, 3505.181,
3505.182, and 3505.183). |
Retains the Senate-passed
provisions, but postpones until June 1, 2006, the date on which those
provisions will take effect (Section
9(A)). |
Statewide voter registration database |
Requires the Secretary of
State to establish a statewide voter registration database that meets the
requirements of federal law and specifies certain additional requirements
with which that database must comply (R.C.
3503.15). |
Same as House provision. |
Additionally requires the
Secretary of State to (1) adopt rules establishing a process for annually
auditing the information in the database, and (2) effective June 1, 2006,
make certain information in the database be available on a web site of the
office (R.C. 3503.15 and Section 8). |
Precinct identification web site |
Permits each county board
of elections to operate and maintain a web site at which any person in that
county may enter the person's address and promptly receive notification of
the person's correct precinct and polling place (R.C. 3501.24). |
Permits each county board
of elections to include this information on its own web site, or, if the
board does not operate and maintain a web site, on the free web space
provided by the office of the Secretary of State (R.C. 3501.24). |
Requires, as part of the
statewide voter registration database, the Secretary of State to make
available online during the 30 days prior to an election, a web site
interface that allows a voter to search for the polling location at which the
voter may cast a ballot, and requires boards of elections to provide to the
Secretary, during that time and for that purpose, updated locations of
precinct polling places within one business day (R.C. 3503.15(G)). |
Publication of election notices |
Reduces to two the number
of times notices of certain elections are required to be published in
newspapers of general circulation in the area in which the election will be
conducted (R.C. 131.23, 306.70,
307.791, 322.021, 324.021, 503.162, 504.02, 504.03, 511.28, 511.34, 513.14,
745.07, 747.11, 3311.21, 3311.50, 3311.73, 3349.29, 3354.12, 3355.09,
4504.021, 5705.191, 5705.194, 5705.196, 5705.21, 5705.218, 5705.25, 5705.251,
5705.261, 5705.71, 5739.022, 5748.02, 5748.04, 5748.08, and 6119.18). |
Adds to the changes in the
House-passed version a requirement that boards of elections publish notice of
those elections for 30 days on their web sites, or, if the boards do not
operate and maintain their own web sites, on free web space provided by the
office of the Secretary of State (R.C.
131.23, 306.70, 307.791, 322.021, 324.021, 503.162, 504.02, 504.03, 511.28,
511.34, 513.14, 745.07, 747.11, 3311.21, 3311.50, 3311.73, 3349.29, 3354.12,
3355.09, 3501.05, 3501.24, 4504.021, 5705.191, 5705.194, 5705.196, 5705.21,
5705.218, 5705.25, 5705.251, 5705.261, 5705.71, 5739.022, 5748.02, 5748.04,
5748.08, and 6119.18). |
Eliminates, from the
Senate-passed version, a requirement that the Secretary of State maintain
free web space for boards of elections that do not operate and maintain their
own web sites, and instead requires each board of elections to publish notice
of those elections for 30 days on the board's web site, if the board operates
and maintains a web site (R.C.
131.23, 306.70, 307.791, 322.021, 324.021, 503.162, 504.02, 504.03, 511.28,
511.34, 513.14, 745.07, 747.11, 3311.21, 3311.50, 3311.73, 3349.29, 3354.12,
3355.09, 4504.021, 5705.191, 5705.194, 5705.196, 5705.21, 5705.218, 5705.25,
5705.251, 5705.261, 5705.71, 5739.022, 5748.02, 5748.04, 5748.08, and
6119.18). |
Voter notification of elections |
Requires a board of
elections to send a notice to registered electors on the 45th day before the
general election in an even-numbered year, and requires any elector whose
notice is returned undeliverable to the board to vote by provisional ballot (R.C. 3501.19). |
Revises the House-passed
version by increasing from 45 to 60 the number of days before the day of the
general election in an even-numbered year that the notice must be sent to
registered voters, and requires the notice to include specified information
regarding voter identification and the location of the appropriate polling
place (R.C. 3501.19). |
Revises the Senate-passed
version by limiting to 60 days before each of the following elections the
times at which a board of elections must send a notice to registered
electors: the 2006 August special
election, the 2006 general election, the 2008 primary election, and the 2008
general election (R.C. 3501.19(A)). |
Attorney in fact for disabled voters |
No provision. |
Establishes a process for
an elector who is unable to sign election documents due to a disability to
appoint an attorney in fact to sign on the elector's behalf, and requires the
signature of the attorney in fact to be recognized by a board of elections as
the elector's signature (R.C.
303.12, 519.12, 3375.03, 3501.38, 3501.382, 3503.14, 3505.18, 3513.07,
3513.09, 3513.261, 3519.05, 3599.13, and 3599.14). |
Eliminates the requirement
from the Senate-passed provision that a notarized attorney in fact
appointment include a physician's attestation (R.C. 3501.382(A)(1)(a)). |
Registration of person registering voters |
Requires a person who is
compensated for registering voters to register with the board of elections of
each county in which the person will register voters (R.C. 3503.29). |
Same as House provision. |
Changes, from the
House-passed provision, the entity with whom persons who are compensated for
registering voters must register from each board of elections to the office
of the Secretary of State, and requires those persons to specify, at the time
of registration, the name of each county in which the person expects to
register voters (R.C. 3503.29). |
Solicitation of contributions to elected officials |
No provision. |
Prohibits county,
municipal, and township elected officers, and candidates for county,
municipal, and township elected offices from knowingly soliciting or
accepting contributions of more than $200 in each election cycle from certain
employees of the office for which the person is an officer or candidate and
establishes a penalty for violating that prohibition (R.C. 3517.092 and 3517.992). |
Prohibits certain
employees of state elected officers and candidates for state elected office
from soliciting contributions to the officer or candidate or the officer's or
candidate's campaign committee (R.C.
3517.092(B)). |
Counting of absent voter's ballots |
No provision. |
No provision. |
Requires a board of
elections, if it determines that the signature on an absent voter's ballot
envelope does not match the signature on the voter's registration form, to
set that ballot aside and determine, prior to the official canvass, whether
the elector also cast a provisional ballot in the precinct on the day of the
election (R.C. 3509.09(C)(1) and
3511.13(C)(1)). |
Penalty for failure to properly return voter registration forms |
Prohibits a person who
helps another to register outside an official registration place or a person
who registers voters for compensation from knowingly failing to properly
return voter registration forms entrusted to that person, specifies that the
penalty for such a violation is a felony of the fifth degree, and increases
the penalty on an existing similar prohibition from a misdemeanor of the
first degree to a felony of the fifth degree (R.C. 3599.11(B) and (C)). |
Modifies the deadline
established in the House-passed version by which voter registration forms
must be returned (R.C. 3599.11(B)
and (C)). |
Generally retains the Senate-passed
version, but specifies that, if all of the following apply, the violation
will be a misdemeanor of the first degree instead of a felony of the fifth
degree: the person has not previously
violated any of the applicable provisions, the violation does not cause any
person to miss any voter registration deadlines with regard to any election,
and the number of voter registration forms that the person has failed to
properly return does not |
Registration of voters without a fixed habitation |
No provision. |
No provision. |
Specifies that, if a
person does not have a fixed place of habitation, but has a shelter or other
location at which the person has been a consistent or regular inhabitant and
to which the person has the intention of returning, that shelter or other
location is deemed the person's residence for the purpose of registering to
vote (R.C. 3503.02(I)). |
Updating voter signatures |
No provision. |
No provision. |
Requires the Secretary of
State to establish a procedure by which a registered elector may update the
elector's signature used in the poll list or signature pollbook (R.C. 3501.05(Z)). |
Board of elections expenses |
No provision. |
No provision. |
Eliminates, in the law
governing expenses incurred by a board of elections, a cross reference to the
Tax Law provision that requires certification by the appropriate fiscal
officer before a contract may be made or money may be expended, but retains
the prohibition against a board of elections incurring an obligation involving
an expenditure of money unless there are moneys in the fund to meet the
obligation (R.C. 3501.17(A)). |
Electronic communication of voter registration information from the
Bureau of Motor Vehicles to a board of elections |
No provision. |
Requires the Bureau of
Motor Vehicles, in consultation with a committee consisting of the directors
of certain boards of elections, to develop and review a system to make
information from completed voter registration applications received by the
Registrar of Motor Vehicles or a deputy registrar available to boards of
elections via electronic means (R.C.
3503.11). |
Same as House provision. |
Board of election branch offices |
No provision. |
Provides that, if a board
of elections acquires, designates, or maintains any site other than the
office of the board or a precinct polling place, including any temporary or
permanent branch office, at which the board permits electors to vote, then
the electors will not be permitted to vote at any other |
Retains the Senate-passed
provision, but postpones until June 1, 2006, the date after which it takes
effect (Section 7). |
Appointment of election observers |
Replaces election
challengers and witnesses with election observers who may observe the
election and counting of ballots, but who may not challenge voters at the
polls (R.C. 3501.26, 3501.30,
3501.33, 3501.35, 3501.90, 3505.16, 3505.183, 3505.21, 3505.25, 3505.26,
3505.27, 3505.32, 3506.12, 3506.13, 3509.06, 3513.22, 3515.04, 3515.13,
3523.05, and 3599.38). |
Changes, from the
House-passed provision, the deadline by which certain groups must file a
petition to be recognized to appoint election observers (R.C. 3505.21). |
Retains the Senate-passed
provision, but postpones until June 1, 2006, the date after which election
observers may be appointed and after which election challengers and witnesses
are eliminated (Section 5). |
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