Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. Chapter 54 of the General Laws is hereby amended by striking out section 86, as most recently amended by section 31 of chapter 477 of the acts of 1985, and inserting in place thereof the following section:-

Section 86. Any voter who during the hours that polling places are open on the day of a special state election or the biennial state election or of any special or regular state primary or of a presidential primary is absent from the city or town where he is a voter by reason of his employment in another community or for any other reason or who will be unable by reason of temporary or permanent physical disability to cast his vote in person at the polling place or who for reasons of religious belief will be unable to cast his vote in person on the day of an election and whose application for an official absent voting ballot has been filed with the city or town clerk as provided in section eighty-nine, and certified under section ninety-one, may vote in accordance with sections eighty-seven to one hundred and three, inclusive. A voter who will be unable by reason of permanent physical disability to cast his vote in person at the polling place may file once with the city or town clerk a certificate executed by a registered physician who is personally acquainted with the voter and aware of his permanent physical disability, stating that it is reasonably certain because of permanent physical disability that the voter will be unable to cast his vote in person at the polling place on the day of the election. The city or town clerk shall maintain a list of such permanently disabled voters and such voters shall not be required to file any such certification thereafter with their applications for an absent voting ballot.

SECTION 2. Section 87 of said chapter 54, as appearing in the 1984 Official Edition, is hereby amended by striking out subsection (c) and inserting in place thereof the following subsection:-

(c) Envelopes of sufficient size to contain the ballots specified in subsection (a) bearing on their reverse the affidavits of the voter and of the witness to his oath that they have complied with the requirements of section ninety-two.

SECTION 3. Said chapter 54, as so appearing, is hereby further amended by striking out section 89 and inserting in place thereof the following section:-

Section 89. The blank forms of application set forth in subsection (b) of section eighty-seven, and the other papers described in the second paragraph of said section eighty-seven, shall, as soon as they can be prepared, be delivered to any person who by mail or otherwise applies therefor to the state secretary or to any city or town clerk. The official absentee voting ballot and all other papers described in said section eighty-seven shall be delivered:-

(a) To a voter who is a patient or resident at a designated health care facility, the official absent voting ballot and all accompanying papers described in section eighty-seven shall be delivered in person as provided in subsection (c) of section ninety-two. "Designated health care facility" shall mean a health care facility as defined by section twenty-five B of chapter one hundred and eleven, within the city or town, which has been designated for the purpose of supervised absent voting in a writing filed with the city or town clerk, not later than twenty-eight days before any primary or election, by the city or town clerk or by any two registrars or election commissioners.

(b) To any other absent voter, the ballot and accompanying papers shall be mailed postage prepaid as provided in subsection (a) of said section ninety-two, or if the voter so requests, be delivered when called for at the office of the clerk as provided in subsection (b) of said section ninety-two. No ballot shall be mailed to a designated health care facility within the city or town where the voter is registered.

(c) To a voter who states under penalty of perjury that he has been admitted, after noon of the fifth day before the relevant election, to any health care facility, as defined by section twenty-five B of chapter one hundred and eleven, the ballot and accompanying papers shall be delivered as provided in subsection (d) of said section ninety-two.

No such application shall be deemed to be seasonably filed unless it is received in the office of the city or town clerk or the registrars of voters before noon on the day preceding the election for which such absent voting ballot is requested, but if the day preceding the election is a Sunday or legal holiday, then before five o'clock post meridian on the last previous day on which the office is open. Any voter who has received the blank form of said application under this or the following section may file said application with the city or town clerk. The provisions of section eighty-one shall be applicable to absent voting ballots; provided, that no request for a substitute ballot from a voter who has received his ballot by mail shall be valid unless it is accompanied by the spoiled ballot and unless it is received in the office of the city or town clerk or the registrars of voters before noon on the day preceding the election for which such substitute absent voting ballot is requested.

No ballot shall be mailed or delivered as provided in this section until the voter has first filed his application and it has been certified by the registrars and returned to the clerk as provided in section ninety-one.

SECTION 4. Said chapter 54 is hereby further amended by striking out section 92, as so appearing, and inserting in place thereof the following section:-

Section 92. (a) A voter who has received by mail an official absent voting ballot as provided in subsection (b) of section eighty-nine may vote by mailing it to the city or town clerk. A voter within the United States, whose name does not appear on the list of permanently disabled voters under section eighty-six, shall mark said ballot in the presence of some person eighteen years of age or older and of no other person. Before marking the ballot he shall exhibit it to said witness, who shall satisfy himself that it is unmarked, but he shall not allow said witness to see how he marks it. Except as provided in section ninety-eight, said witness shall hold no communication with the voter, nor he with said witness, as to how he is to vote. Thereafter the voter shall enclose and seal the same in the envelope provided for by subsection (c) of section eighty-seven. He shall then execute before said witness the necessary affidavit on said envelope as provided for in said subsection (c), and the witness shall sign his name and residential address on said envelope. The voter shall then enclose and seal said envelope in the envelope provided for in subsection (d) of said section eighty-seven, and mail the same within the time prescribed in section ninety-three, postage prepaid. A voter outside the United States, or a voter whose name appears on the list of permanently disabled voters under section eighty-six, shall mark the ballot in the presence of no person, except as provided in section ninety-eight, enclose and seal it in the envelope provided for in said subsection (c), execute the affidavit on such envelope, enclose and seal such envelope in the envelope provided for in said subsection (d) and mail the envelope within the time prescribed in section ninety-three, postage prepaid.

(b) A voter whose ballot is delivered in person at the office of the clerk as provided in subsection (b) of section eighty-nine shall not remove it from that office, but shall mark or, in the case of a punch card electronic voting system ballot, shall punch said ballot as prescribed in subsection (a) in the presence of said clerk or some other witness. Thereafter the voter shall enclose and seal the same in the envelope provided for by subsection (c) of section eighty-seven. He shall then execute before said witness the necessary affidavit on said envelope as set forth in said subsection (c) and shall enclose and seal the envelope with the ballot in the envelope provided for in subsection (d) of said section eighty-seven, endorse thereon his name, address and voting place and hand the same to said clerk.

(c) Delivery of the official absent voting ballot in person, as provided in subsection (a) of said section eighty-nine, shall be by a registrar, or by two assistant registrars or absent registration officers who shall not be enrolled in the same political party, at the designated address. The voter shall mark or, in the case of an electronic voting system ballot, shall punch the ballot as prescribed in said subsection (a) in the presence of the official or officials who delivered it and, except as provided in section ninety-eight, of no other person. The voter shall next enclose and seal the ballot in the envelope provided for in subsection (c) of section eighty-seven. He shall then execute before the official or officials the necessary affidavit on that envelope. The official or officials shall certify on that envelope that the affidavit was executed in his or their presence. The voter shall then enclose and seal that envelope in the outer envelope provided for in subsection (d) of said section eighty-seven, endorse on it his name, address, and voting place, and hand it to an official, who shall return it in his custody to the office of the city or town clerk.

(d) Delivery of the official absent voting ballot to a voter in a health care facility, as provided in subsection (c) of section eighty-nine, shall be in the same manner as provided in subsection (c) of this section, but if allowed in the sole discretion of the city or town clerk, a person who is kindred of the voter, as defined in section one hundred and three B, may instead perform the functions of the election official.

(e) Any ballot cast under the provisions of sections eighty-six to one hundred and three A, inclusive, shall be defective if the witness, excepting a city or town clerk, in whose presence it was marked and before whom the affidavit required was executed is a candidate for any office.

SECTION 5. Said chapter 54 is hereby further amended by striking out section 93, as so appearing, and inserting in place thereof the following section:-

Section 93. All ballots cast as provided in subsection (a) of section ninety-two shall be mailed, and as provided in subsection (b) in said section ninety-two shall be delivered, on or before the day of election; a postmark, if legible, shall be evidence of the time and place of mailing. All ballots cast as provided in subsection (c) of said section ninety-two shall be delivered before the day of election.

SECTION 6. Section 94 of said chapter 54, as so appearing, is hereby amended by striking out, in line 14, the words "an official" and inserting in place thereof the words:- a witness.

SECTION 7. Said chapter 54 is hereby further amended by striking out section 98, as so appearing, and inserting in place thereof the following section:-

Section 98. An absent voter who because of blindness or other physical disability or inability to read or read in the English language is unable to prepare his ballot may at his discretion be assisted in marking it by any person whom he may designate.

SECTION 8. The third paragraph of section 103E of said chapter 54, as so appearing, is hereby amended by striking out the second sentence and inserting in place thereof the following sentence:- There shall be included in the certificate to be executed by the witness in whose presence such person makes his affidavit a statement setting forth that such person has signed his name in the witness's presence, or that he was prevented by physical disability or inability to write from so signing, and that said signature was added by said witness.

SECTION 9. Section 103H of said chapter 54 is hereby amended by striking out the second sentence, as appearing in section 40 of chapter 477 of the acts of 1985, and inserting in place thereof the following sentence:- He shall mark such ballot in the manner prescribed by subsection (a) of section ninety-two.

SECTION 10. Section 103 O of said chapter 54, as so appearing, is hereby amended by striking out paragraph (b) and inserting in place thereof the following paragraph:-

(b) Blank forms to be printed on the envelopes for enclosing the official absent ballots, for the affidavits of the voter and of the witness to his oath that they have complied with the requirements of law.