Florida Senate - 2018                              CS for SB 810
       
       
        
       By the Committee on Rules; and Senator Powell
       
       
       
       
       
       595-03540-18                                           2018810c1
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to vote-by-mail ballots; amending s.
    3         101.69, F.S.; authorizing a supervisor of elections to
    4         accept an elector’s voted vote-by-mail ballot at an
    5         early voting site in the county where the elector is
    6         registered to vote during the site’s hours of
    7         operation; requiring the Division of Elections to
    8         adopt rules; providing an effective date.
    9          
   10  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   11  
   12         Section 1. Section 101.69, Florida Statutes, is amended to
   13  read:
   14         101.69 Voting in person; return of vote-by-mail ballot.—
   15         (1) The provisions of this code shall not be construed to
   16  prohibit any elector from voting in person at the elector’s
   17  precinct on the day of an election or at an early voting site,
   18  notwithstanding that the elector has requested a vote-by-mail
   19  ballot for that election. An elector who has returned a voted
   20  vote-by-mail ballot to the supervisor, however, is deemed to
   21  have cast his or her ballot and is not entitled to vote another
   22  ballot or to have a provisional ballot counted by the county
   23  canvassing board. An elector who has received a vote-by-mail
   24  ballot and has not returned the voted ballot to the supervisor,
   25  but desires to vote in person, shall return the ballot, whether
   26  voted or not, to the election board in the elector’s precinct or
   27  to an early voting site. The returned ballot shall be marked
   28  “canceled” by the board and placed with other canceled ballots.
   29  However, if the elector does not return the ballot and the
   30  election official:
   31         (a)(1) Confirms that the supervisor has received the
   32  elector’s vote-by-mail ballot, the elector shall not be allowed
   33  to vote in person. If the elector maintains that he or she has
   34  not returned the vote-by-mail ballot or remains eligible to
   35  vote, the elector shall be provided a provisional ballot as
   36  provided in s. 101.048.
   37         (b)(2) Confirms that the supervisor has not received the
   38  elector’s vote-by-mail ballot, the elector shall be allowed to
   39  vote in person as provided in this code. The elector’s vote-by
   40  mail ballot, if subsequently received, shall not be counted and
   41  shall remain in the mailing envelope, and the envelope shall be
   42  marked “Rejected as Illegal.”
   43         (c)(3) Cannot determine whether the supervisor has received
   44  the elector’s vote-by-mail ballot, the elector may vote a
   45  provisional ballot as provided in s. 101.048.
   46         (2)(a) If an elector who has received a vote-by-mail ballot
   47  and has not returned the voted vote-by-mail ballot to the
   48  supervisor chooses not to vote in person as provided in
   49  subsection (1), the supervisor may accept the elector’s voted
   50  vote-by-mail ballot at an early voting site in the county where
   51  the elector is registered to vote during the site’s hours of
   52  operation.
   53         (b) The division shall adopt uniform rules for the receipt
   54  of the ballots.
   55         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2018.