HB 300 Amendments to Election Law
There has been a lot of confusion with HB 300 about Rep Burton’s proposed changes to mail in voting. The bill itself is quite long. I interviewed Rep Burton and he said that there were a couple of problems with elections recently and voter confidence had dropped. HB 300 is supposed to address those issues. A recent audit found that 1400 dead people were still on voter rolls and two of them had voted. He also said that some parents vote for their LDS missionaries, which is illegal. He didn’t think that the parents knew better.
- 1400 dead people still on voter rolls
- 2 dead people voted
- Parents illegally voted for their missionaries
- Voter confidence is down
- Election results weren’t immediately available
- The Las Vegas Post Office failed to properly postmark ballots
- 4% of ballots were rejected due to a rejected signature
Burton also claimed that Utah took a lot longer than other states to have election results that could be called. He said the Lt Governor held off calling the election. He wasn’t sure on the specifics though. Several polling locations stayed open late due to long lines, as required by law, which prevented any results from being released for many hours, which is also required by law. He claimed that Pennsylvania certified much faster. According to the Pennsylvania state website, they didn’t certify their vote until Dec 11th. Utah certified results on November 25th.
Burton also cited that 4% of signatures on mail in ballots were rejected. If you put your phone number or email address, the county is supposed to contact you and give you a chance to cure your ballot, if there is enough time. You can also track your ballot online. And there was an issue with ballots in southern Utah that were processed in Las Vegas. The Post Office didn’t properly postmark the date, invalidating many ballots.This bill doesn’t address this issue other than making it harder to vote by mail.
This bill does nothing to address the problems with Utah County Clerk, Aaron Davidson, who had more ballots cast than people listed as showing up in person, twice.
Burton’s solution to these problems is to require people to register to vote by mail, currently every two years in the bill. He believes that people being required to show id when they register to vote by mail or use a drop box will help restore voter confidence. This time period may change if and when it reaches the senate.There are provisions in there to automatically register the handicapped and infirm. The military and their family members use a different system for absentee ballots. Burton also said that there is special language for LDS missionaries to register before they leave.
There is a significant price tag with this bill, which requires two people to monitor each drop box. The six million dollar ongoing cost will be passed on to the counties.
It is unclear which issues this bill would actually resolve as all of the problems can still happen. Burton rejected the idea of people doing this voluntarily. Burton is confident this bill will pass, in some form, as it has the backing of House leadership.
The bill can be found at HB0300