Oklahoma Senate Votes to Bring Back Notary Mandate for Absentee Voting [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Courthouse News Service

May 7, 2020 DAVID LEE

Opponents of the measure say it is a GOP attempt to suppress the vote ahead of the June 30 primary.


OKLAHOMA CITY (CN) – Only three days after it was struck down by the state’s high court, the Republican-controlled Oklahoma Senate voted along party lines Thursday to reinstate a requirement that absentee ballots must be notarized.

Senate Bill 210 passed 38-9, with all nine Democratic state senators opposing it. The bill now awaits the signature of Republican Governor Kevin Stitt after it passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives 74-26 late Wednesday evening.

The bill requires absentee ballots to be notarized with the voter’s signature witnessed by two other people. It carves out a narrow exception for Covid-19, allowing absentee voters to mail in a photocopy of identification instead of a notarized signature during the pandemic.

“The measure also authorizes the delivery of absentee ballots to designated officials of care homes in the event an absentee voting board is prohibited from entering a nursing facility or veterans center due to restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic or another localized outbreak of a communicable disease,” the one-page bill summary states.

Read more: https://www.courthousenews.com/oklahoma-senate-votes-to-bring-back-notary-mandate-for-absentee-voting/

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