SB 831
Department of Legislative Services
Maryland General Assembly
2021 Session
FISCAL AND POLICY NOTE
First Reader
Senate Bill 831 (Senator Kagan)
Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs
Election Reform Act of 2021
This bill makes various changes to State election law relating to the State and local boards
of elections, party affiliation, candidate debates, nomination of circuit court judge
candidates, ballot questions, ballot arrangement, absentee voting, ballot drop boxes, early
voting, and election results reporting.
Fiscal Summary
State Effect: General fund expenditures increase by $238,000 in FY 2022 and by ongoing,
but varying, amounts in future years, accounting for quantified costs. Additional costs,
which have not been quantified at this time, may be incurred, as discussed below. Revenues
are not affected.
(in dollars) FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 FY 2025 FY 2026
Revenues $0 $0 $0 $0 $0
GF Expenditure 238,000 131,800 276,400 127,000 247,200
Net Effect ($238,000) ($131,800) ($276,400) ($127,000) ($247,200)
Note:() = decrease; GF = general funds; FF = federal funds; SF = special funds; - = indeterminate increase; (-) = indeterminate decrease
Local Effect: Local government expenditures increase significantly beginning in
FY 2022, as discussed below. Revenues are not affected. This bill imposes a mandate on
a unit of local government.
Small Business Effect: None.
 Analysis
Bill Summary: The bill makes various changes to State election law. Specifically, the bill
(1) establishes requirements relating to the public availability of meeting minutes and
other State Board of Elections (SBE) meeting materials on SBE’s website;
(2) establishes requirements – applicable to local boards of elections – for live video
streaming of meetings, video archiving, and posting of meeting minutes and other
meeting materials online (similar to requirements applicable to SBE);
(3) redefines “majority party” and “principal minority party” under provisions
governing the composition of local boards of elections, so that “majority party” and
“principal minority party” are determined by the amount of registered voters in the
county that are affiliated with each party rather than by the party to which the
incumbent Governor belongs;
(4) allows a registered voter who has declined to affiliate with a political party to change
to a party affiliation at any time an individual may register to vote;
(5) requires each candidate (except an unopposed candidate) for Governor,
U.S. Senator, and Representative in Congress to participate in at least one public
debate before the primary election and, if applicable, the general election;
(6) establishes a Maryland Debate Commission, staffed by SBE, to develop guidelines
for the conduct of debates, establish debate criteria, and host debates before each
primary and general election for candidates for Governor, Lieutenant Governor,
Attorney General, Comptroller, and members of Congress;
(7) establishes plain language requirements for ballot question summaries included on
petitions and on the ballot;
(8) establishes that, in a primary election to nominate candidates for judge of the
circuit court, any registered voter of the county, regardless of party affiliation or
lack of party affiliation, is eligible to vote in those contests for nomination;
(9) requires that candidates for a single office appear on the same page of a paper ballot;
or either on the same page of the ballot shown on the screen of an electronic voting
device, or on more than one screen as long as a voter is not allowed to select all the
candidates for that office until the voter views or hears all the names of candidates
for that office;
SB 831/ Page 2
(10) establishes that SBE may not certify a voting system unless it determines that the
voting system will enable, to the extent practicable, a voter to view all candidates
for a single office on the same page or screen before casting a vote;
(11) requires specified additional identification information to be provided on the
absentee ballot application approved by SBE, the same information required for an
online absentee ballot application or a request to receive a blank absentee ballot
through the Internet;
(12) establishes requirements related to the sufficiency of absentee ballot applications
and absentee ballots, including notification of a voter of an error, the ability of the
voter to correct the error, procedures to follow if two legally sufficient ballots in
separate envelopes are received from the same individual, and the sufficiency of a
ballot not returned using specified envelopes and, if applicable, a privacy sleeve;
(13) eliminates the ability of a voter to receive an absentee ballot through the Internet
unless the voter is a specified uniformed services or overseas voter, a voter with a
disability who is unable to mark a ballot independently by hand, or any other voter
who would be unable to vote if they could not receive an absentee ballot
electronically;
(14) establishes that language or information that visibly identifies the party affiliation
of a voter may not be included on an outgoing absentee ballot envelope, and
language or information that visibly identifies the address, the party affiliation, or
the zip code of a voter may not be included on an absentee ballot return envelope or
an absentee ballot return envelope template provided by a local board of elections
to a voter who is sent an absentee ballot through the Internet or by fax;
(15) requires that, if a local board of elections uses only two envelopes (an outgoing
envelope and ballot/return envelope) instead of three envelopes (an outgoing
envelope, return envelope, and ballot envelope), a privacy sleeve that encases the
absentee ballot and fits inside the ballot/return envelope must be used;
(16) requires each local board of elections to designate locations in the county at which
a ballot drop box will be placed, including one at each early voting center;
(17) prohibits a person from placing a box that may be used to collect completed absentee
ballots unless the box is officially designated as a ballot drop box by a local board
and the person has been directed by the local board to place the box;
SB 831/ Page 3
(18) establishes that a voter in line to deposit an absentee ballot at a ballot drop box by
the closing hour of polling places must be allowed to deposit the absentee ballot;
(19) requires that each local board, in collaboration with SBE, ensure that early voting
centers are geographically dispersed throughout the county so that not less than 80%
of the registered voters in the county live within a five-mile radius of an early voting
center;
(20) shifts the timing of the early voting period so that it begins the second Monday
before an election and ends the Monday immediately preceding the election instead
of beginning the second Thursday before the election and ending the Thursday
before the election;
(21) increases the hours an early voting center is open by requiring that early voting
centers be open for voting between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. each early voting day;
(22) allows a local board of elections to begin opening absentee ballot envelopes, to
canvass the ballots, at 8:00 a.m. on the day that is 15 days before Election Day,
replacing the current start time of 8:00 a.m. on the Wednesday following
Election Day; but also prohibits a person from releasing a partial or complete
tabulation of absentee votes before the closing of the polls on Election Day; and
(23) requires that local boards of elections’ and SBE’s reports of election results by
precinct include the early, absentee, and provisional vote.
Current Law: State election law provisions and/or SBE regulations:
 require SBE to make meeting agendas and minutes, and live streaming and archived
video of meetings, publicly available on its website, in a specified manner;
 govern the composition of local boards of elections, specifying numbers of members
that must be of the majority party or principal minority party, with “majority party”
generally meaning the political party to which the incumbent Governor belongs;
 do not allow a party affiliation change to be processed for an election if it is not
submitted before voter registration closes for the election; with the exception of
same day registration during early voting and on Election Day, registration is closed
from the twenty-first day preceding an election until the eleventh day after the
election;
SB 831/ Page 4
 require a petition that seeks to place a question on the ballot to contain a fair and
accurate summary or the full text of the proposal, and require a ballot to contain a
condensed statement of the purpose of a ballot question;
 allow for candidates for circuit court judge to be nominated for the general election
by the Democratic and Republican parties in the primary election, and candidates
“cross-file,” appearing on both the Democratic and Republican primary election
ballots, needing to win on only one;
 require that, whenever possible, the entire listing of a contest be printed on one side
of the ballot page;
 require that a voter who uses the online absentee ballot application to request that
an absentee ballot be sent by any method or who uses any method to request to
receive a blank absentee ballot through the Internet, provide additional identification
information;
 require, if an absentee ballot application is timely but any of the required
information is missing, that the election director of the local board of elections
attempt to contact the voter to correct the omission;
 require a local board to reject an absentee ballot under specified circumstances,
including if the voter failed to sign the oath on the ballot envelope, and require a
local board, if it receives more than one legally sufficient ballot in separate
envelopes from the same individual, to count only the ballot with the latest properly
signed oath;
 allow a voter to receive an absentee ballot by mail, by fax, through the Internet, or
by hand at a local board of elections office;
 require a local board of elections to use either two absentee ballot envelopes
(“outgoing envelope” and “ballot/return envelope”) or three envelopes (“outgoing
envelope,” “return envelope,” and “ballot envelope”) and, if an absentee ballot is
sent by the Internet or fax, the local board must provide the voter with an envelope
template;
 establish that on an election day, a polling place is open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.,
and a voter who has appeared at a polling place by the closing hour to cast a ballot
must be allowed to vote;
SB 831/ Page 5
 require local boards, in seeking approval of proposed early voting centers from SBE,
to show (1) in the case of a county with one early voting center, that the early voting
center is located so that 50% of the registered voters in the county live within
10 miles of the proposed center and (2) in the case of a county with specified greater
numbers of early voting centers, the centers are located so that 80% of the registered
voters live within five miles of one of the proposed centers;
 require each early voting center to be open for voting from the second Thursday
before a primary or general election through the Thursday before the election, and
in a presidential general election, from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. each early voting day,
and in all other elections, from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. each early voting day;
 prohibit a local board of elections from opening any envelope of an absentee ballot
prior to 8:00 a.m. on the Wednesday following Election Day; and
 require local boards of elections and SBE to make election results available by
precinct, but prohibit a statement prepared by a local board from reporting the
absentee vote separately by precinct.
State Fiscal Effect:
Quantified Costs
Costs of the bill incurred by the State (general funds) that are able to be quantified at this
time are shown in Exhibit 1.
SB 831/ Page 6
 Exhibit 1
Quantified General Fund Costs of the Bill
FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024 FY 2025 FY 2026
Affiliation with a party
during early voting and
Election Day (ballot costs)
(provision 4, above) $106,500 $142,000 $106,500
Maryland Debate
Commission (SBE staff)
(provision 6) 71,000 $83,800 86,400 $89,500 92,700
Circuit court judge primary
open to any voter
(programming and ballot
costs) (provision 8) 45,000 32,500 32,500 32,500 32,500
Additional early voting hours
(voting system support
personnel) (provision 21) 15,500 15,500 15,500 5,000 15,500
Total $238,000 $131,800 $276,400 $127,000 $247,200
Additional Costs
The following additional costs (that are not able to be quantified at this time) may be
incurred:
 Limitation on the Ability of a Voter to Receive a Mail-in Ballot through the
Internet (provision 13) – General fund expenditures increase by approximately
$0.68 for each mail-in ballot that is no longer sent to a voter through the Internet as
a result of the bill, reflecting a shift in costs from local board personnel costs
associated with canvassing of mail-in ballots sent to voters through the Internet, to
costs of instead mailing ballots to voters, a cost shared by SBE and the local boards.
 Prohibition on Party Affiliation Information Appearing on Absentee Ballot
Envelopes (provision 14) – General fund expenditures may increase by up to
$16,000 in fiscal 2022 only, for programming of SBE’s election systems to
SB 831/ Page 7
 reconfigure the way that ballot styles are identified (the ballot style identification is
included on absentee ballot envelopes in order to match the correct ballot style with
a voter’s outgoing absentee ballot envelope), so that they do not include an
indication of party affiliation.
 Privacy Sleeve Included with Mail-in Ballot Envelopes (provision 15) –
General fund expenditures may increase to the extent that including a privacy sleeve
with mail-in ballots increases the cost of printing and mailing the ballots, a cost
shared by SBE and the local boards of elections.
 80% of Registered Voters within a Five-mile Radius of an Early Voting Center
(provision 19) – To the extent the bill may require a county to use the option under
current law to establish one additional early voting center in order to meet the bill’s
requirement that 80% of registered voters live within a five-mile radius of an early
voting center, general fund expenditures increase by at least approximately $6,000
annually per additional early voting center established, reflecting the State’s share
of voting system costs associated with an early voting center.
This fiscal and policy note assumes that policies implemented in 2020 relating to ballot
drop boxes and reporting of election results by precinct are largely continued in future
elections even in the absence of this bill. Costs associated with administration of ballot
drop boxes (delivery costs and local personnel, mileage, and security costs) and reporting
of election results by precinct (costs associated with an increased number of ballots and
ballot styles) are therefore not accounted for as costs of this bill.
Local Fiscal Effect: The bill affects local government finances in the following ways:
 Live Streaming and Video Archiving of Local Board Meetings (provision 2) –
Local government expenditures increase, in each county that does not already meet
the bill’s requirement, by approximately $13,000 in fiscal 2022 and $4,000 annually
thereafter, assuming costs are similar to those incurred by SBE for live streaming
and video archiving of its meetings.
 Affiliation with a Party during Early Voting and Election Day (provision 4) –
Local government expenditures increase, collectively, by $106,500 in fiscal 2022
and future years in which a gubernatorial primary election occurs and by $142,000
in fiscal 2024 and future years in which a presidential primary election occurs,
reflecting the local boards’ share of ballot costs associated with allowing an
unaffiliated voter to change to a party affiliation at any time an individual may
register to vote, including during early voting and on Election Day. Additional costs,
SB 831/ Page 8
 paid for by local boards, may be incurred for programming of pollbooks to
implement the change.
 Circuit Court Judge Primary Open to Any Voter (provision 8) – Loc