16-549. Special election boards; procedure for
voting ill or disabled electors; expenses
A. The county recorder or other officer in charge of elections, for the purpose of
making it possible for qualified electors who are ill or disabled to vote, may appoint
such number of special election boards as needed. In a partisan election, each such
board shall consist of two members, one from each of the two political parties which cast
the highest number of votes in the state in the last preceding general election. The
county chairman of each such party shall furnish, within sixty days prior to the election
day, the county recorder or other officer in charge of elections with a list of names of
qualified electors within the chairman's political party, and such additional lists as
may be required, from which the county recorder or other officer in charge of elections
shall appoint members to such special election boards. The county recorder or other
officer in charge of elections may refuse for cause to appoint or may for cause remove a
member of this board. A person who is a candidate for an office other than precinct
committeeman is not eligible to serve on the special election board for that election.
B. Members of special election boards appointed under the provisions of this
section shall be reimbursed for travel expenses in the manner provided by law and shall
also receive such compensation as the board of supervisors or the governing body
prescribes, all of which shall be paid by the county or other political subdivision.
C. In lieu of the mailed early ballot procedure, any qualified elector who is
confined as the result of a continuing illness or physical disability and is, therefore,
not able to go to the polls on the day of the next election and who does not wish to vote
by the mailed early ballot procedure, may make a verbal or a signed written request to
the county recorder or other officer in charge of elections to have a ballot personally
delivered to the elector by the special election board at the elector's place of
confinement within the county or other political subdivision. The ballot shall be
delivered to the elector in person by a special election board as provided in this
section. Such requests must be made by 5:00 p.m. on the second Friday before the
election.
D. Qualified electors who become ill or disabled after the second Friday before the
election may nevertheless request personal ballot delivery pursuant to this section, and
the county recorder or other officer in charge of elections shall when possible honor
such requests up to and including the last day before the election. Qualified electors
who are admitted to a hospital after 5:00 p.m. on the second Friday preceding the
election and before 5:00 p.m. on election day may request the county recorder or other
officer in charge of elections to provide a special election board with a ballot at the
elector's place of confinement. If the county recorder or other officer in charge of
elections is able to accommodate the request, the voted ballot of the elector shall be
sealed in an envelope and shall be processed as a provisional ballot pursuant to section
16-584.
E. The manner and procedure of voting shall be as provided in section 16-548,
except that the marked ballot in the sealed envelope shall be handed by the elector to
the special election board and shall be delivered by the board to the county recorder or
other officer in charge of elections.
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