Jenkins bill requiring excuses for absentee voting by mail passes committee
A bill that would remove the 'no' from no-excuse absentee voting by mail in Oklahoma has passed through committee.
In a 4-3 vote Monday the House Elections and Ethics Committee passed an amended version of House Bill 1515.
Currently no excuse is required to vote absentee by mail nor in-person absentee. As it was introduced, the bill authored by freshman Rep. Molly Jenkins (R-Coyle) would require any voter applying for an absentee ballot to provide a statement describing why they cannot vote either in-person absentee or on election day due to work, school or travel. The bill amended and passed by the House committee would create a checklist with the following exceptions or excuses for voting by mail: absent from the jurisdiction, illness or disability, employment-related, education-related, military service, religion, serving as an election official, being 75 or older and jury duty.
Jenkins said the goal was to enhance security, transparency and integrity of our voting system.
One of the committee members to eventually vote nay, Rep. Mickey Dollens (D-Oklahoma City), asked Jenkins in Monday's meeting what the problem the ballot measure would solve.
'Personal responsibility is the cornerstone of our Democratic Republic and this is just one more measure to strengthen the integrity of voting,' Jenkins said.
Chairman Jim Olsen (R-Roland) said he looked at it as just another step for a process that already requires an application process.
Dollens asked Jenkins if she could cite an example of voter fraud among Oklahomans in the last president election, while Jenkins said she could not, she said the process is so the situation doesn't arise.
'I can't think of any other fundamental right in the U.S. that requires a citizen to explain why they are exercising it, why should voting be any different,' Dollens said.
There also seemed to be some confusion, even among the authors, of how often the excuse portion of the application process would need to be. Voters can currently request an entire calendar year's worth of ballots in December. Committee members could not figure out if that meant the excuse would only be required once, at the same time of the application, or for each election. Jenkins initially said the excuse would be good for the entire year, except for illness. State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax said the state law would mean an excuse would be required for every election.
Rep. Clay Staires (R-Skiatook) asked if the goal was to discourage absentee ballots.
'The goal of this is to strengthen the integrity of the election,' Jenkins said. 'When a person has to write down a reason for what they're doing, perhaps it will give them pause to think about voting is not necessarily something that should just be a convenience. This is a very serious situation and people need to take it seriously. I believe even our current new president is wanting to have one-day voting. This is something that we need to move towards to strengthen the integrity of elections.'
HB 1515 now moves on to the House Government Oversight Committee.
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