Reference is to Printer's Date 5/8/14-H.
Amend the bill, as and if amended, by striking all after the enacting words and inserting:
/ SECTION 1. Article 1, Chapter 13, Title 7 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:
"Section 7-13-25.
(A) Notwithstanding the provisions of
this chapter or Chapter 5 of this title, the authority charged
by law with conducting an election shall establish a procedure
by which a qualified elector may cast his ballot, without
excuse, during an early voting period for all elections. The
qualified elector may cast a ballot during an early voting
period pursuant to this section.
(B) An early voting
center must be established and maintained to ensure that voters
may cast only one ballot.
(C) A qualified elector
may cast his ballot at an early voting center in the county in
which he resides.
(D) Each county board
of registration and elections must establish one early voting
center and those counties with a population of at least one
hundred and thirty thousand may establish an additional early
voting center. The county board of registration and elections
will determine the locations of any early voting center. Any
early voting center must be located in a county or municipal
owned building with a permanent address and must be supervised
by election commission employees.
(E) The early voting
period begins nine days before an election and ends the day
prior to the election, exclusive of Sundays.
(F) The county board of
registration and elections shall determine the hours of
operation for the early voting center; however, the early voting
center must be open for two Saturdays within the early voting
period for statewide primaries and general elections, and the
center must be open a minimum of five hours between the hours of
9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. each day it is open for voting. The
early voting center must close at 5:00 p.m. on the final day of
early voting, the Monday immediately preceding election day.
(G) A sign must be
posted prominently in the early voting center and shall have
printed on it:
'VOTING MORE THAN ONCE IS A MISDEMEANOR
AND, UPON CONVICTION, A PERSON MUST BE FINED IN THE DISCRETION
OF THE COURT OR IMPRISONED NOT MORE THAN THREE YEARS'."
SECTION 2. Article 1, Chapter 13, Title 7 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:
"Section 7-13-200.
(A) An entity authorized by law to
conduct an election shall conduct this event, at which qualified
electors are allowed to cast a ballot, on one of four dates as
provided in subsection (B).
(B) The dates on which
an election event may be held are:
(1)
the second Tuesday in March;
(2)
the second Tuesday in June;
(3)
the second Tuesday in September; or
(4)
the Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
(C) Notwithstanding
another provision of law, if an entity is required to conduct an
election event, it must be conducted on one of the four dates
established in subsection (B) after and nearest to the date
established by another provision of law.
(D) A person having
been elected and currently serving a term in office that has an
election date other than one of those dates listed in subsection
(B) must have his term of office extended to allow for an
election to occur nearest the date provided by subsection
(B).
(E) The provisions of
this section do not apply to amendments proposed to the
Constitution of this State or the United States
Constitution."
SECTION 3. Section 7-3-20(C) of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 265 of 2012, is further amended by adding:
"(14) enter into the master file a separate designation each for voters casting absentee ballots and early ballots in a general election."
SECTION 4. Section 7-15-320 of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 43 of 2011, is further amended to read:
"Section 7-15-320.
(A) A
qualified elector in any of the following categories must be
permitted to vote by absentee ballot in all elections when he is
absent from his county of residence on election day during the
hours the polls are open, to an extent that it prevents him from
voting in person:
(1)
students, their spouses, and
dependents residing with them;
(2)
members of the Armed Forces and
Merchant Marines of the United States, their spouses, and
dependents residing with them;
(3)
persons serving with the American
Red Cross or with the United Service Organizations (USO) who are
attached to and serving with the Armed Forces of the United
States, their spouses, and dependents residing with
them;
(4)
governmental employees, their
spouses, and dependents residing with them;
(5)
persons on vacation (who by virtue
of vacation plans will be absent from their county of residence
on election day); or
(6)
overseas citizens.
(B)
A qualified elector in any of the following
categories must be permitted to vote by absentee ballot in all
elections, whether or not he is absent from his county of
residence on election day:
(1)
physically disabled
persons;
(2)
persons whose employment obligations
require that they be at their place of employment during the
hours that the polls are open and present written certification
of that obligation to the county registration board;
(3)
certified poll watchers, poll
managers, county voter registration board members and staff,
county and state election commission members and staff working
on election day;
(4)
persons attending sick or physically
disabled persons;
(5)
persons admitted to hospitals as
emergency patients on the day of an election or within a
four-day period before the election;
(6)
persons with a death or funeral in
the family within a three-day period before the
election;
(7)
persons who will be serving as
jurors in a state or federal court on election day;
(8)
persons sixty-five years of age or
older; or
(9)
persons confined to a jail or
pretrial facility pending disposition of arrest or
trial.
(A) A
qualified elector may vote during the early voting period
pursuant to Section 7-13-25.
(B) A
qualified elector in any of the following categories must be
permitted to vote by absentee ballot in all elections:
(1)
students, their spouses, and dependents residing
with them;
(2)
members of the Armed Forces and Merchant Marines
of the United States, their spouses, and dependents residing
with them;
(3)
persons serving with the American Red Cross or
with the United Service Organization (USO) who are attached to
and serving with the Armed Forces of the United States, their
spouses, and dependents residing with them;
(4)
physically disabled persons who are, pursuant to
certification by a physician, unable to vote in person at either
a polling place or early voting center because of their physical
disability;
(5)
overseas citizens;
(6)
persons sixty-five years of age or older;
(7)
persons confined to a jail or pretrial facility
pending disposition of arrest or trial;
(8)
certified poll watchers, poll managers, county
voter registration board members and staff, county and state
election commission members and staff working on election day;
(9)
persons admitted to hospitals as emergency
patients on the day of an election or within a four-day period
before the election;
(10)
persons who will be serving as jurors in a state
or federal court on election day;
(11)
persons on vacation, who by virtue of vacation
plans will be absent from their county of residence on election
day; or
(12)
persons attending sick or physically
disabled."
SECTION 5. Sections 7-13-1620 and 7-15-470 of the 1976 Code are repealed.
SECTION 6. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor. /
Renumber sections to conform.
Amend title to conform.