72nd OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2003 Regular Session
 
NOTE:  Matter within  { +  braces and plus signs + } in an
amended section is new. Matter within  { -  braces and minus
signs - } is existing law to be omitted. New sections are within
 { +  braces and plus signs + } .
 
LC 1792
 
                         House Bill 2827
 
Sponsored by Representative CLOSE (at the request of Mike
  Balanesi)
 
 
                             SUMMARY
 
The following summary is not prepared by the sponsors of the
measure and is not a part of the body thereof subject to
consideration by the Legislative Assembly. It is an editor's
brief statement of the essential features of the measure as
introduced.
 
  Prohibits opening of return identification and secrecy
envelopes in election conducted by mail until 8:30 a.m. on date
of election. Prohibits ballot drop sites established by persons
other than elections officials.
 
                        A BILL FOR AN ACT
Relating to elections; creating new provisions; and amending ORS
  254.478 and 260.695.
Be It Enacted by the People of the State of Oregon:
  SECTION 1. ORS 254.478 is amended to read:
  254.478.  { + (1) + } Not sooner than   { - the seventh day
before - }   { + 8:30 a.m. on  + }the date of an election, in
preparation for counting ballots delivered by mail, the county
clerk may begin opening return identification and secrecy
envelopes of ballots delivered by mail and received by the county
clerk.
   { +  (2) + } The county clerk may take any other actions that
are necessary to allow the counting of ballots delivered by mail
to begin on election day.
  SECTION 2.  { + Section 3 of this 2003 Act is added to and made
a part of ORS chapter 254. + }
  SECTION 3.  { + (1) In an election conducted by mail, a person
other than an elections official in performance of duties, may
not establish a place of deposit for ballots cast in the
election.
  (2) Each place of deposit for ballots cast in the election
designated under ORS 254.470 shall be staffed by elections
officials during all hours that the place of deposit is open.
  (3) Elections officials shall count each ballot delivered to a
place of deposit designated under ORS 254.470 at the place of
deposit and shall count the ballots again when the ballots are
transferred from the place of deposit to the office of the county
clerk. + }
  SECTION 4. ORS 260.695 is amended to read:
  260.695. (1) No person shall print or circulate an imitation of
the ballot or sample ballot, or a portion of the ballot or sample
ballot, which contains information which will not appear, or
deletes information which will appear, on the ballot or sample
ballot, or that portion of the ballot or sample ballot, unless
the imitation of the ballot or sample ballot, or portion of the
ballot or sample ballot, contains the following statement in bold
type:  ' NOT FOR OFFICIAL USE.' This subsection does not prohibit
the printing or circulation of an imitation of a ballot which
illustrates the manner in which a candidate's name may be written
in for an office.
  (2) No person, within any building in which a polling place is
located or, in an election conducted by mail, after the date that
ballots are mailed as provided in ORS 254.470, within any
building in which ballots are issued, or within 100 feet measured
radially from any entrance to the building, shall do any
electioneering, including circulating any cards or hand bills, or
soliciting signatures to any petition. No person shall do any
electioneering by public address system located more than 100
feet from an entrance to the building but capable of being
understood within 100 feet of the building. The electioneering
need not relate to the election being conducted.
  (3) No person shall obstruct an entrance of a building in which
a polling place is located. In an election conducted by mail,
from the date that ballots are mailed as provided in ORS 254.470
until the time designated by the county clerk for closure of the
building on election day, no person shall obstruct an entrance of
a building in which a place designated for the deposit of ballots
under ORS 254.470 or any voting booth maintained under ORS
254.474 is located.
  (4) No person shall vote or offer to vote in any election
knowing the person is not entitled to vote.
  (5) No person at a polling place, other than an election board
member, shall deliver a ballot to an elector.
  (6) No elector at a polling place shall knowingly receive a
ballot from any other person than an election board member.
  (7) No person shall make a false statement about the person's
inability to mark a ballot.
  (8) No person, except an elections official in performance of
duties or other person providing assistance to an elector as
described in ORS 254.445, shall ask a person at the polling place
for whom that person intends to vote, or examine or attempt to
examine the person's ballot.
  (9) No person shall show the person's own marked or punched
ballot to another person to reveal how it was marked or punched.
  (10) No elections official, other than in the performance of
duties, shall disclose to any person any information by which it
can be ascertained for whom any elector has voted.
  (11) No person, except an elections official in performance of
duties, shall do anything to a ballot to permit identification of
the person who voted.
  (12) No elector at a polling place shall deliver a ballot to an
election board member except the ballot the elector received from
an election board member. Nothing in this subsection shall
prohibit a person from delivering any absentee ballot or ballots
to an election board member.
  (13) No person at a polling place, except an election board
member, shall receive from an elector other than an absent
elector a marked or punched ballot.
  (14) No elector shall willfully leave in the polling place
anything that will show how the elector's ballot was marked or
punched. In an election conducted by mail, no elector shall
willfully leave at any place designated for the deposit of
ballots under ORS 254.470 or in any voting booth maintained under
ORS 254.474, anything that will show how the elector's ballot was
marked or punched.
  (15) No person, except an elections official in performance of
duties, shall remove a ballot from any polling place, any place
designated for the deposit of ballots under ORS 254.470 or any
voting booth maintained under ORS 254.474.
 
 
  (16) No person, except an elections official in performance of
duties or a person authorized by that official, shall willfully
deface, remove, alter or destroy a posted election notice.
  (17) No person, except an elections official in performance of
duties, shall willfully remove, alter or destroy election
equipment or supplies, or break the seal or open any sealed
package containing election supplies.
  (18) No person other than an elections official shall attempt
to collect voted ballots within 100 feet measured radially from a
location designated for deposit of ballots under ORS 254.470.
    { - (19) No person, except an elections official in
performance of duties, in an election conducted by mail, shall
establish a location to collect ballots voted by electors unless
the person prominently displays at the location a sign stating:
'NOT AN OFFICIAL BALLOT DROP SITE.' - }
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