DE HB148

County Directors or Deputy County Directors must furnish necessary materials, voter information, and supplies to each election district, including maps and a sufficient number of ballots expected to enable efficient election administration.

The Commissioner must prepare a report within 30 days after each election certifying the number of ballots supplied to each district, ballots used, and remaining blank ballots, which shall be delivered to the Governor, legislative leadership, Attorney General, and posted on the Department of Elections website.

The Department may open and prepare absentee ballot envelopes in public meetings beginning 30 days before Election Day (rather than Friday before), with party challengers permitted to observe and challenge ballots.

Election judge teams processing absentee ballots must have no more than half of their members registered with any one party, allowing independents and third-party members to participate while preventing single-party domination.

Ballots unreadable by tabulating equipment must be duplicated with identical unique identifiers; original unreadable ballots are separately secured while duplicates are scanned for tabulation, with all results withheld until polls close on Election Day.