H5951

	2015 -- H 5951
	========
	LC001971
	========
	STATE OF RHODE ISLAND
	IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY
	JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2015
	____________
	A N A C T
	RELATING TO ELECTIONS -- MAIL BALLOTS

	Introduced By: Representatives Craven, and Morin
	Date Introduced: March 19, 2015
	Referred To: House Judiciary
	(Board of Elections)
	It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:
1	SECTION 1. Section 17-20-27 of the General Laws in Chapter 17-20 entitled "Mail
2	Ballots" is hereby amended to read as follows:
3	17-20-27. Sealing of ballots and voting list. -- The state board shall, at the completion of
4	the count of all votes cast at any election, securely store all ballots cast in the election, and after
5	the certification of the results of the elections, the state board shall place all ballots received from
6	mail voters together with the certified envelopes containing the ballots in a steel box or package
7	and shall seal the ballots and envelopes in open meetings of the board by affixing at least four (4)
8	adhesive labels, and the members of the board shall sign the labels by affixing their signatures in
9	ink to each of the labels, and thereafter no steel box or package shall upon any pretense be
10	reopened by any person, except upon order of the general assembly or a court of competent
11	jurisdiction, but shall be held by the board until the first day of September in the second (2nd)
12	year after the ballots were cast for twenty-two (22) months , when they may then be destroyed.
13	The certified copies of the voting lists of mail voters and the applications referred to in § 17-20-
14	10 shall likewise be safely sealed and kept by the board for the same length of time.
15	SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.
	========
	LC001971
	========

	EXPLANATION
	BY THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
	OF
	A N A C T
	RELATING TO ELECTIONS -- MAIL BALLOTS
	***
1	This act would change the period of time that the board of elections must keep mail
2	ballots from the first day of September in the second year after they were cast to a period of
3	twenty-two (22) months after the election.
4	This act would take effect upon passage.
	========
	LC001971
	========
	LC001971 - Page 2 of 2