Amendment ID: S2545-32

Amendment 32

Mandating Elections Infrastructure Necessary to Implement Election Day Registration

Ms. Rausch, Ms. Gobi, Ms. Moran and Mr. Eldridge move that the proposed new draft be amended in section 7, in line 79, by striking out the words “To the extent feasible, the” and inserting in place thereof the following word:- The;

and further moves to amend said section 7, in line 80, by striking out the word “available” and inserting in place thereof the following words:- electronically available in real time;

and further moves that the proposed new draft be amended by inserting at the end thereof the following new sections:-

SECTION XX. Chapter 51 of the General Laws is hereby amended by striking section 47C in its entirety and inserting in place thereof the following section:-

Section 47C. Central registry of voters

(a) The secretary of state shall maintain a central registry of voters in accordance with this section.

(b) Information contained in the central registry shall be provided by the registrars or equivalent in the commonwealth’s cities and towns.

(c) The central registry shall contain, without limitation, the following information about each registered voter in the commonwealth: (1) full name; (2) former name, if any; (3) residential address; (4) date of birth; (5) political party enrollment or designation; and (6) effective date of registration.

(d) The central registry may contain, without limitation, the following information about residents of the commonwealth age 16 and over: (1) full name; (2) former name, if any; (3) residential address on January first in the current year; (4) residential address on January first in the preceding year; (5) date of birth; (6) occupation; (7) veteran status; and (8) nationality, if not a citizen of the United States.

(e) The central registry shall be electronically maintained using the most advanced applicable technology reasonably available to the state secretary.

(f) The information contained in the central registry pursuant to paragraph (c) shall be: (1) available to state party committees, statewide candidate committees, state ballot question committees, the jury commissioner, adjutant general and any other individual, agency or entity that the state secretary shall designate by regulation consistent with the purposes of this section, at a fair and reasonable cost not to exceed the cost of printing in hard copy, if requested, or issuing computer-readable data files; and (2) provided by the state secretary to the election officials at each polling place in the commonwealth in digital format sufficient to allow for designated election officials to conduct real-time searches of the registry and to modify a voter’s registration information upon presentation by the voter of appropriate documentation to justify the modification.

(g) The state secretary shall adopt regulations governing the operation of the central registry consistent with the provisions of this section.

SECTION YY. The state secretary shall use all reasonable efforts to secure and use federal funding to maintain and provide the information contained in the central registry consistent with the provisions of section XX of this act.