SB 187-ABSENTEE AND SPECIAL NEEDS VOTING    LORETTA BROWN, staff to Senator Ward, introduced SB 187 for the sponsor. She read the following sponsor statement. This legislation will require the director of elections to notify the voting public of all absentee in person voting locations at least 60 days prior to an election. It will also provide a uniform statewide opening date for absentee in person voting. Currently the location and opening periods for absentee voting stations is at the discretion of the director of the division of elections and requires no public notice. This has lead to some inconsistencies in opening dates and voting locations. SB 187 requires that the director of the division of elections provide full public notice of the location of all absentee voting stations at least 60 days prior to each election. No new absentee voting station sights may be added or opened after the 60-day notification period. Absentee voting stations will be operated on or after the 15th day before a primary, general, or special election. Qualified voters may apply in person for an absentee ballot at the absentee voting station on or after the 15th day before an election up to and including the date of the election. Absentee voting stations cannot be opened early. Having a uniform state wide opening date and prior notification of all absentee voting in person locations will make for less confusion for the voters and a more even playing field for all concerned. Basically, the bill removes the discretionary powers of opening and closing voting stations from the director of elections and sets those times in statute. In addition, voting stations are identified 60 days prior to elections and new stations may not be opened after that 60 day period passes. On page 2, line 9, AS15.20.048(b) is referred to and gives the director the discretionary power to open the absentee stations more than 15 days before an election. The committee substitute (CS) for SB 187 removes this option altogether. CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT asked whether there were any questions on the J version of the bill. There were none. SENATOR DAVIS moved the J version (Kurtz 4/19/01) as the working document. There was no objection. CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT asked whether he was correct in stating the director still has some latitude on when the absentee stations open so long as there is the required public notification and they all open up at the same time. MS. BROWN said that the bill says stations may not be opened more than 15 days prior to an election. It also requires prior notice so all voters know where the voting station will be. GAIL FENUMIAI, Election Program Specialist from the Division of Elections, wanted to clarify a number of issues. The division has historically published absentee voting locations from one to three weeks prior to Election Day. For general elections, locations are published in the official election pamphlet and mailed to the households of all registered voters about three weeks prior to the election. There are two types of absentee in person voting. The first type is through an absentee voting station, which SB 187 specifically addresses. There were just 14 of those during the primary and 15 for the general election. Stations have all 40 House district ballots and in the last primary there were the four regional election offices in Juneau, Anchorage, Fairbanks and Nome that served as absentee voting stations. There was also a Kenai Peninsula office located in Soldotna that operated as a station. Access Alaska operated as an absentee voting station in Anchorage and there was a station in Prudhoe Bay that was operational four days prior to and through Election Day. The University of Alaska, Anchorage, was open the Monday before the election and on Election Day for the primary. During the general election the University of Alaska, Fairbanks was also open for voting during that same period of time. The airports at Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan, Kodiak, Anchorage and Fairbanks are all open on Election Day to serve as absentee voting stations. Other locations are single district locations in small communities that have absentee voting officials but generally the only ballots available are for that particular district. The reason for starting absentee voting early in the general election is because they had statutory authority to do so and the ballots were delivered early. People called with unforeseen circumstances and asked whether they could vote early. Since they had the ballots and the statutory authority to allow individuals to vote early they decided it was their duty to do so. The division feels that a newspaper notice of 60 days is too long for people to remember where the voting locations will be. For the August 22nd primary the division advertised August 3rd through the 10th and then the following week. CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT asked whether there is a problem with setting a certain date so everyone knows the date the stations would open. Individuals going out of town could vote by mail. MS. FENUMIAI said that's correct but sometimes people are not terribly cooperative. Historically, they have had no difficulty with all absentee in person voting starting the 15th day before the election. The November election was a rare occurrence in which the ballots arrived eight days early. CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT asked her preference on advance notice for advertising an election. MS. FENUMIAI thought 30 days would be a good starting point with additional notices run 21 days prior to the election and final advertising run between the 15th and 8th day before the election. CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT said he realizes the division does not get additional funding if they advertise over a longer period of time but the first advertisement could start earlier and subsequent advertisements could run closer to the election day. MS. FENUMIAI said that would be possible. Voting information is also posted on the elections home page and it is the same information that appears in printed advertisements. They are already required by statute to give location and time notice for absentee in person voting. Setting the statutory date for when this must be started is acceptable but 60 days is too far out to be beneficial to the voters. CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT asked Ms. Brown to explain why 60 days was selected. MS. BROWN said voters and campaigners need to have notice of where the locations will be and when they will open so they may depend on those as they go through their campaign process. She did not believe shortening the time frame a bit would be a problem. CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT responded that candidates certainly could call the division of elections for that information. He asked whether the reluctance comes from the possibility that a candidate might prepare printed material advertising a certain polling station and then the division of elections could switch the location. MS. BROWN said yes. SENATOR PHILLIPS said that can be a problem. Candidates print campaign materials giving polling location information and then learn the division of elections has made a change making all the printed material inaccurate. He thought it only fair to ask the division of elections to have that information set far enough in advance so the candidate does not spend time and money disseminating voter information that is ultimately inaccurate. MS. FENUMIAI said the division tries its best to have polling places secured by June 1 but there are unforeseen circumstances that require changes. They do try to notify voters of the changes made to accommodate emergency situations but it is a frustration that is borne by everyone. Absentee voting stations and absentee voting officials are generally set on a June 1 time line because the division needs to know the number of locations there will be so that supplies may be ordered. To the best of her knowledge, an additional absentee voting station has never been added several days before absentee voting started if, for no other reason, there would not be enough supplies, workers or ballots available to accommodate an additional station. Occasionally an absentee voting official is added in small communities where an election board cannot be found. CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT thought 60 days was too long. SENATOR DAVIS moved amendment 1 on page 2, line 1, which changes "60" to "30". SENATOR PHILLIPS wanted to ask the sponsor whether 30 days was acceptable. MS. BROWN said she thought Senator Ward would like to see a longer length of time. SENATOR PHILLIPS suggested 45 days. SENATOR DAVIS did not support 45 days. CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT said Senator Ward is a member of the finance committee so they could pass amendment 1 and he could address the issue in that committee. CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT asked whether there was objection to amendment 1 changing "60" to "30" on page 2, line 1. There was none. He noted the zero fiscal note. He asked for any other testimony. There was none. SENATOR PHILLIPS moved CSSB 187 (STA) J version and accompanying zero fiscal note from committee with individual recommendations. There was no objection.