Bill Request

							Commonwealth of Kentucky                            Legislative Research Commission
General Assembly                                  Local Mandate Fiscal Impact Estimate

                                 2010 REGULAR SESSION

                                    Measure Information

Bill Request #:     1206

Bill #:    SB 129

Bill Subject/Title:     Absentee voting

Sponsor:     Senator Brandon Smith

Unit of Government:             City                  X County               X Urban-County
                                Charter County        X Consolidated Local     Unified Local

Office(s) Impacted          County clerks; local boards of elections

Requirement:        X       Mandatory        Optional

Effect on
Powers & Duties         X    Modifies Existing           Adds New        Eliminates Existing

                                   Purpose and Mechanics

SB 129 requires the State Board of Elections to establish procedures to permit members
of the military and their dependents and overseas Kentucky residents to vote by e-mail or
by fax. Voters wishing to use either of these methods are required to sign a privacy
waiver.

Currently, military and overseas voters may request receipt of absentee ballots by e-mail
or fax. However, the marked ballots can only be transmitted back to the county clerk’s
office by “snail” mail. SB 129 allows electronic and fax transmission of the ballots in
both directions.

At least 20 states permit military and overseas Kentucky residents to vote by fax or by e-
mail and another seven states allow transmissions of completed ballots by fax or e-mail in
emergency situations.

Procedures to implement SB 129 would need to be in place by the November General
Election.




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               Fiscal Explanation, Bill Provisions, and Estimated Cost

The State Board of Elections would be responsible for establishing procedures to allow
transmittal of marked ballots by fax or e-mail, and it is uncertain at this time what those
procedures would be. However, based on the experience in several other states, the fiscal
impact of SB 129 on county government appears to be a minimal increase in cost.

Both the Kentucky Board of Elections and the Kentucky Secretary of State indicate that if
SB 129 is enacted, there will need to be a protocol developed to assure that ballots are
secured and locked in the ballot box as soon as they come in via fax or e-mail.

Faxed Votes. Of particular concern is the fact that in many county clerks’ offices, one
fax machine is used for the entire office. A ballot could come in by fax and be
unattended for several hours; it could be lost if accidentally mixed in with a non-election
fax. One way to resolve this problem would be to require a dedicated fax machine for
voting with limited access. This could be accomplished for less than $500. An
alternative would be for individual clerks or the Kentucky Board of Elections to use a
paperless electronic fax system that would automatically convert faxes and route them to
an e-mail address. In North Carolina, military and overseas voters may fax their ballots
to the State Board of Elections. The faxes are converted to e-mail and received by the
North Carolina office which then routes them via e-mail to the appropriate local election
office. The staff of the North Carolina Board of Elections indicates this was
accomplished at minimum expense without the need to purchase software.

E-mail Votes. A dedicated e-mail account could be created at a minimal cost to receive
marked ballots. There are two ways a marked ballot could be transmitted by e-mail.
Voters could be required, once they receive the ballot, to print it, mark it, and scan the
ballot so it can be returned by e-mail as an attachment. The other option would be to
allow the voter to open up the document, mark the ballot while the document is open, and
then e-mail it back. If the Kentucky Board of Elections requires the latter option, some
additional programming of the ballot would be required. Harp Enterprises, a voting
machine vendor, estimates that the cost to program and test a ballot that could be opened,
marked, and returned by e-mail would be approximately $500 per county.

Since military and overseas voters could vote approximately 45-50 days in advance of an
election, the protocol to secure ballots would need to be in place and followed for 45-50
days prior to an election.

On Election Day, the ballot box containing absentee ballots received by e-mail and fax
will have to be marked on an official ballot by the election staff. However, since all
absentee ballots received by mail have to be marked in a similar manner, this would not
be an additional expense.

Several states that have already implemented military and overseas voting by e-mail and
fax were contacted. South Carolina has permitted military and overseas voting by fax
and e-mail for a number of years. Both North Carolina and Florida currently permit



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military and overseas voting by fax and that same population will be permitted to vote by
e-mail in their next primary elections. These three states report that their local election
officers incurred minimal costs to implement the requirement to allow military and
overseas voting by fax or e-mail. In addition, a similar legislative proposal is now under
consideration in the state of Washington and the Washington State Board of Elections
indicates they believe their local officials could implement the proposed voting option for
overseas and military using “existing technology, staff, and facilities.”

In Kentucky, approximately 6,000 absentee military and overseas votes were cast by mail
in the 2008 Presidential Election. These voters were spread throughout the state and for
most counties the number of overseas and military voters is relative small. With 879
military and overseas mailed ballots, Jefferson County had the most absentee military and
overseas voters in the 2008 Presidential election. Hardin County, close to Fort Knox,
reported 159 military and overseas voters for the 2008 Presidential Election and Christian
County, close to Fort Campbell, reported 382 votes. Leslie County reported only seven
votes cast by absentee military or overseas voters in the 2008 Presidential Election.
Military and overseas voters tend to participate at a much higher rate in presidential
elections than they do in other elections, and consequently, the numbers cited above are
expected to decrease for the 2010 General Election.

Barring any requirement to purchase expensive new technology, it appears SB 129
could be implemented with a minimal increase in costs.

Data Source(s): LRC staff; Kentucky Board of Elections; Kentucky Secretary of State;
Harp Enterprises; Kentucky County Clerk Association; County clerks in the counties of
Jefferson, Franklin, Hardin, Christian, and Leslie; The PEW Center on the States, “No
Time to Vote: Challenges Facing America’s Military Voters, January 2009;” State
election boards in the states of Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Washington.

Preparer: Mary Lynn Collins                Reviewer:                    Date:




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