Section 657:16 Refusal to Certify; Procedure.
If he or she refuses to certify the application, the town or city clerk shall notify the applicant in writing within 7 days to that effect. The town or city clerk shall provide the applicant with an absentee ballot and a notice that the ballot will not be counted unless the applicant submits the documents necessary to complete an absentee registration. The applicant shall be advised in writing what documents, if any, have been received in proper form and which the applicant must submit in the return envelope that contains the absentee ballot affidavit envelope. The town or city clerk shall mark the exterior of the absentee ballot affidavit envelope with the words ""Not Registered.'' If the applicant returns the required documents in proper form with the absentee ballot and if the applicant is found to be qualified, he or she shall be registered and his or her absentee ballot shall be processed in the same manner as the absentee ballot of a previously registered voter. If the ballot is returned without the required documents in proper form, the ballot shall be marked and preserved in the manner set for forth by law for successfully challenged absentee ballots. The clerk shall preserve the application of any applicant who is not registered as a voter until the time set by law for the destruction of the ballots after the election at which time the application shall be destroyed. Any justice of the superior court has jurisdiction in equity upon such notice as he or she may order to require that the name of the person making application for an absentee ballot be placed upon the checklist or registered as a member of any party and be sent an absentee ballot.
Source. 1979, 436:1. 2003, 289:54, eff. Sept. 1, 2003.