Absentee voting; ballots to be processed before election day and sorted and counted.

Elections; absentee voting; ballots to be processedbefore election day and sorted and counted by precinct. Requirescertain actions to be taken to process absentee ballots that arereturned by mail before election day. The general registrar is requiredto examine the ballot envelopes to verify completion of the requiredvoter affirmation; mark the pollbook, or the absentee voter applicantlist if the pollbook is not available, that the voter has voted;and open the sealed ballot envelopes and insert the ballots in opticalscan counting equipment or other secure ballot container without initiating any ballot count totals. Current law requires only thatthe general registrar undertake at least one such activity beforeelection day. So that ballots can be separated from ballot envelopesand scanned, the bill requires that the office of the general registrarbe used as a central absentee voter precinct. The bill requires thatabsentee ballots processed at any central absentee voter precinctbe sorted by the precinct to which the voter who cast the absenteeballot is assigned and that the resulting vote totals from such ballotsbe reported separately for each voter precinct.