53.8 - BALLOT MAILED.
53.8 BALLOT MAILED.
1. Upon receipt of an application for an absentee ballot and
immediately after the absentee ballots are printed, the commissioner
shall mail an absentee ballot to the applicant within twenty-four
hours, except as otherwise provided in subsection 3. The absentee
ballot shall be enclosed in an unsealed envelope bearing a serial
number and affidavit. The absentee ballot and unsealed envelope
shall be enclosed in or with a return envelope marked postage paid
which bears the same serial number as the unsealed envelope. The
absentee ballot, unsealed envelope, and return envelope shall be
enclosed in a third envelope to be sent to the registered voter. If
the ballot cannot be folded so that all of the votes cast on the
ballot will be hidden, the commissioner shall also enclose a secrecy
envelope with the absentee ballot.
2. a. The commissioner shall enclose with the absentee ballot
a statement informing the applicant that the sealed return envelope
may be mailed to the commissioner by the registered voter or the
voter's designee or may be personally delivered to the commissioner's
office by the registered voter or the voter's designee. The
statement shall also inform the voter that the voter may request that
the voter's designee complete a receipt when retrieving the ballot
from the voter. A blank receipt shall be enclosed with the absentee
ballot.
b. If an application is received so late that it is unlikely
that the absentee ballot can be returned in time to be counted on
election day, the commissioner shall enclose with the absentee ballot
a statement to that effect.
3. a. When an application for an absentee ballot is received
by the commissioner of any county from a registered voter who is a
patient in a hospital in that county or a resident of any facility in
that county shown to be a health care facility by the list of
licenses provided the commissioner under section 135C.29, the
absentee ballot shall be delivered to the voter and returned to the
commissioner in the manner prescribed by section 53.22.
b. (1) If the application is received more than five days
before the ballots are printed and the commissioner has elected to
have the ballots personally delivered during the ten-day period after
the ballots are printed, the commissioner shall mail to the applicant
within twenty-four hours a letter in substantially the following
form:
Your application for an absentee ballot for the election to be
held on ...... has been received. This ballot will be personally
delivered to you by a bipartisan team sometime during the ten days
after the ballots are printed. If you will not be at the address
from which your application was sent during any or all of the ten-day
period immediately following the printing of the ballots, the ballot
will be personally delivered to you sometime during the fourteen days
preceding the election. If you will not be at the address from which
your application was sent during either of these time periods,
contact this office and arrangements will be made to have your
absentee ballot delivered at a time when you will be present at that
address.
(2) If the application is received more than fourteen calendar
days before the election and the commissioner has not elected to mail
absentee ballots to applicants as provided under section 53.22,
subsection 3, and has not elected to have the absentee ballots
personally delivered during the ten-day period after the ballots are
printed, the commissioner shall mail to the applicant within
twenty-four hours a letter in substantially the following form:
Your application for an absentee ballot for the election to be
held on ...... has been received. This ballot will be personally
delivered to you by a bipartisan team sometime during the fourteen
days preceding the election. If you will not be at the address from
which your application was sent during any or all of the fourteen-day
period immediately preceding the election, contact this office and
arrangements will be made to have your absentee ballot delivered at a
time when you will be present at that address.
c. Nothing in this subsection nor in section 53.22 shall be
construed to prohibit a registered voter who is a hospital patient or
resident of a health care facility, or who anticipates entering a
hospital or health care facility before the date of a forthcoming
election, from casting an absentee ballot in the manner prescribed by
section 53.10 or 53.11. Section History: Early Form
[SS15, § 1137-c, -d; C24, 27, 31, 35, 39, § 928, 930; C46, 50,
54, 58, 62, 66, 71, § 53.2, 53.4; C73, § 53.2; C75, 77, 79, 81, §
53.8] Section History: Recent Form
83 Acts, ch 176, § 7; 84 Acts, ch 1291, § 12; 86 Acts, ch 1224, §
30; 94 Acts, ch 1169, §64; 2002 Acts, ch 1134, §62, 115; 2004 Acts,
ch 1083, §31, 32, 37; 2007 Acts, ch 59, §25, 26, 38; 2007 Acts, ch
215, §223; 2009 Acts, ch 57, §62, 63; 2009 Acts, ch 143, §1
Referred to in § 49.63, 53.22, 53.49, 135C.29