SB2217

Same-county moves. An address change through the specified registration-notice, residence-statement, confirmation-response or agency procedures becomes effective immediately when the registrar receives it if the voter moved within the county of the existing registration. This is a specific exception to the older 30-day change rule—not general same-day registration for previously unregistered voters or a rule making every out-of-county move immediately effective. The residence-statement provision now refers to the precinct where the voter resides, rather than the former registered precinct, still says “if otherwise eligible,” and requires a request to update the registration address. The statement must also contain the required registration-application information, residence affirmation and date. Final law, sections 1 and 3.

Electronic check-in records. Certified electronic devices used to accept voters must be able to produce a report containing the required combination-form information and a list of accepted voters identifying their county election precinct and actual polling location. Those are different concepts: a voter’s residential precinct need not be the location where the voter checked in. Officials may redact information as necessary to preserve the secret ballot; the reporting rule is not permission to link named voters to their choices. Existing check-in functions remain, and the new report requirements do not require disclosure of how a named person voted. Final law, section 2.

After-election reconciliation and preservation. Within 30 days after election day, the records custodian must reconcile total votes cast with voters accepted in person at each polling place, separately for early voting and election day, and post the results where the county posts election results. For elections using the certified electronic check-in devices, the custodian must also prepare the new combination-form/accepted-voter report within 30 days. It is an election record retained for the applicable precinct-record preservation period. These are not a new daily-reconciliation requirement or a declaration that every discrepancy proves fraud. Final law, section 5.

Scanner and voting-system reports. Where voters scan ballots at the polling place, the presiding judge must produce each scanner’s total-ballots report immediately after closing at the end of the early-voting period and on election day. An early-voting-site report may not show candidate or proposition vote totals. For centrally counted optical-scan ballots, the central-counting judge must prepare the required per-storage-device/scanner ballot-total report before reading the device into a central accumulator, the component that combines multiple precincts’ totals. A report prepared before election-day polls open may not show candidate or proposition totals. For elections held on or after September 1, 2026, a system using a central accumulator must be capable of reporting candidate/proposition totals by polling place. That is a system-capability requirement, not a direction to publish results before voting starts. Final law, sections 6–8.

Accepted provisional ballots cast during early voting must be reported with early voting in person; those cast on election day must be reported with election-day results. This changes result grouping, not the separate rules for deciding whether a provisional ballot is accepted. Final law, section 4.

Proposals that did not survive. The Senate substitute clarified a proposed discrepancy trigger and removed a requirement that the polling-place totals report come specifically “from the central accumulator.” The Senate-passed and House committee operative texts then matched. Shaheen’s adopted May 27 House amendment changed the proposed trigger to “at least one percent or more than three votes, whichever is greater.” Conference removed that entire proposed section 87.129, including daily early-vote reconciliation and the automatic central-counting trigger. Neither threshold became law in SB2217. Patterson’s May 27 amendment to prohibit ranked-vote counting was withdrawn and likewise is not in this act. Versions and conference report; Shaheen threshold amendment; Withdrawn ranked-vote proposal; All amendment dispositions; Final law.

Shaheen’s May 28 third-reading amendment added the same-county address changes and secret-ballot redaction language. Those provisions survived conference, which both chambers approved June 1. Reading only the introduced bill or the House committee print would miss those changes and wrongly retain the deleted discrepancy trigger. Adopted third-reading amendment; Conference history; Final law.

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

The intended benefits are clearer records for checking election totals, more useful polling-place reporting and fewer address-update delays for eligible same-county movers. Election officials and vendors must provide compatible reports, preserve records, handle address updates and protect ballot secrecy. The act does not establish that a particular election was inaccurate, guarantee that discrepancies are fraudulent, impose a universal hand-count requirement or eliminate other voter-eligibility rules. Final law.

The final May 31 conference fiscal note anticipates no significant state or local fiscal impact and assumes state implementation can use existing resources. Earlier introduced, substitute and House-passed notes said no state fiscal implication; the final note is more qualified. Neither supplies a quantified technology-upgrade cost, guaranteed savings or an appropriation. “No significant” estimated impact should not be read as no reporting work or no possible local expense. Final fiscal note; Earlier fiscal notes.