Changes to Existing Law

A person may designate or change that person's party affiliation, name, or address by completing a new registration card. For any registration card completed by a person changing that person's party affiliation, name, or address, if A registered voter shall update the voter's registration information after changing a place of residence or legally changing the voter's name. If the field for party affiliation is left blank on the registration card, the person's party affiliation shall be the most recent party affiliation registered for that person. For any registration card completed by a person who is registering to vote for the first time in this state, if the field for party affiliation is left blank, the party affiliation shall be registered as independent or no party affiliation. 24

The clerk of courts shall, within fifteen days after the close of each month, prepare and deliver to the auditor an abstract from the records of the names of persons declared mentally incompetent in the preceding month. The notice shall be sent to the county auditor of the county in which the person declared incompetent resides. The county auditor shall remove from the master registration list the names of persons identified in accordance with the information provided pursuant to this section and names of those sentenced to imprisonment in the federal penitentiary system and may remove names published in an obituary. Voter At least once per month, voter registration records maintained in or transmitted to the statewide voter registration file shall be matched with the death records maintained as vital statistics records by the Department of Health and the records of felony convictions maintained by the Unified Judicial System. Any voter identified as deceased or who is serving a sentence for a felony conviction shall be removed from the voter registration records. The State Board of Elections may promulgate rules, pursuant to chapter 1-26, determining how voter registration records shall be matched.

The secretary of state shall establish maintain a secure, computerized system for maintaining and utilizing the voter registration file and for transmitting voter registration information from each county auditor to the Office of the Secretary of State. Each county auditor shall transmit any changes to the master registration file or the absentee voter log to the secretary of state on a daily basis. The county auditor shall transmit updated information contained in the county voter registration system, including voter registration information and voter election history information, to the Office of the Secretary of State, not later than July fifteenth after each primary election and December fifteenth after each general election. 26