Current through Reg. 49, No. 12; March 22, 2024
(a) Eligibility. Pursuant to §
RSA
101.001 and §
RSA
101.006 of the Texas Election Code, a person
is eligible to submit a Federal Postcard Application (an "FPCA") as an
application for permanent registration if:
(1) the person is qualified to vote in this
state or, if not registered to vote in this state, would be qualified if
registered; and
(2) the person is:
(A) a member of the armed forces of the
United States, or the spouse or a dependent of a member;
(B) a member of the merchant marine of the
United States, or the spouse or a dependent of a member; or
(C) domiciled in this state but temporarily
living outside the territorial limits of the United States and the District of
Columbia who is qualified to submit an FPCA.
(b) General Conduct of Voting. The FPCA
serves simultaneously:
(1) as a request for a
mail ballot from the early voting clerk for a period of two federal elections;
and
(2) as a request for permanent
registration in the county in which the voter resides, unless the voter states
that he or she resides indefinitely outside the United States.
(c) Action on original FPCA by
early voting clerk.
(1) The FPCA must be
submitted to the early voting clerk for the election who serves the election
precinct of the applicant's residence. The FPCA may be submitted by mail,
telephonic facsimile (fax), or an electronic transmission of the image to an
authorized recipient (for example, scanning and attaching to an email) to the
address of the early voting clerk.
(2) The early voting clerk shall make a
notation of the name of the office and date and time of receipt, then make a
complete copy (front and back, and any accompanying envelopes or fax cover
sheets) of the FPCA to retain for mail balloting purposes. The early voting
clerk shall then forward the original FPCA (and any accompanying envelopes or
fax cover sheets) to the county voter registrar for the county, in which the
applicant's Texas residence address is located, as soon as practicable, but no
later than within five days, so that the FPCA may be processed as an
application for permanent voter registration, even if the FPCA is insufficient
as a mail ballot request. This deadline does not supersede the deadlines to
mail out ballots pursuant to §
RSA
86.004, Election Code. The early voting
clerk's copy functions as the official FPCA for all mail balloting purposes for
elections, including purposes necessary during the early voting ballot board
meeting, and the copy shall be maintained as an election record for 22 months
after the last election in which the FPCA is processed for mail balloting
purposes, pursuant to §
RSA
66.058, Election Code. Once the early voting
clerk makes a copy for early voting purposes, that copy is considered the
"original" for purposes of public information requests made of the early voting
clerk, including the rules concerning originals at §
RSA
86.014, Election Code.
(3) The authorized recipient will notate the
name of the office receiving the FPCA and the date and time of receipt on the
face of the FPCA, before taking any action on the original FPCA. Failure to
make these notations will not affect the overall validity of the FPCA, even if
the calculation of the date of receipt is affected.
(4) Processing defective FPCAs.
(A) Incorrect territory. If the Texas
residence address provided on the FPCA indicates an address outside the early
voting clerk's territory, the clerk shall make a copy for his or her records,
and immediately forward the original FPCA to the correct jurisdiction's early
voting clerk not later than the day after it is received, pursuant to §
RSA
101.004(d), Election Code.
The (incorrect) early voting clerk shall send the voter a notice of rejection
on behalf of his or her jurisdiction pursuant to §
RSA
86.001(f), Election Code,
and include a statement that the FPCA has been forwarded to the correct early
voting clerk. If the early voting clerk cannot determine the correct
jurisdiction based on the residence address, the early voting clerk shall seek
assistance from the office of the county voter registrar or the secretary of
state. Regardless of whether the early voting clerk's territory is incorrect,
the early voting clerk shall forward a courtesy copy of the FPCA to the voter
registrar for that clerk's territory (so that the voter registrar may provide a
second review of the voter's address).
(B) Mail balloting errors other than voter
registration. For any other voter errors resulting in an insufficient mail
ballot request, the early voting clerk shall send the voter a notice of
rejection pursuant to §
RSA
86.001, Election Code, even though the FPCA
is still forwarded to the voter registrar for purposes of an application for
permanent voter registration.
(d) Action on FPCA by county voter registrar.
(1) Upon receipt of the original FPCA from
the early voting clerk, the county voter registrar shall immediately review the
FPCA to see if the voter's permanent residence address places the voter in
their Texas county. The voter registrar shall process the FPCA in the same
manner as a regular voter registration application. For any errors that make
the FPCA insufficient for voter registration, the voter registrar shall send
the voter a notice of rejection or notice of incomplete, whichever is
appropriate in accordance to §
RSA
13.073, Election Code. The original shall be
kept by the county voter registrar for the retention period applicable to
applications for permanent voter registration.
(2) If the applicant states on the FPCA that
he or she resides outside the United States indefinitely, the voter registrar
shall not treat any such FPCA (which was incorrectly forwarded to the
registrar) as an application for permanent voter registration and shall notify
the early voting clerk that the FPCA was forwarded to the voter registration
office in error.
(3) If the FPCA
was sent to the wrong Texas county, the registrar shall make a notation of the
date received by his or her office, notify immediately the early voting clerk
in their county of the error so that a ballot is not sent for their county,
then immediately forward the original FPCA to the correct early voting clerk so
that the clerk can process the FPCA in accordance with subsection (c) of this
section (unless the early voting clerk has already determined that his or her
county is incorrect in accordance with subsection (c)(4)(A) of this
section).
(4) Request for Return of
Original FPCA. A voter registrar who records voter registration data for
storage purposes on optical disk or other computer storage medium, shall, upon
request of the early voting clerk, deliver the original FPCA to the early
voting clerk before destroying the original FPCA.
(5) If the voter registrar receives a
courtesy copy of an FPCA from an early voting clerk (based on initial
determination of incorrect territory by the clerk), and the voter registrar has
information that confirms that their county is the correct county, the voter
registrar shall contact the original early voting clerk immediately to begin
the processing of the FPCA in subsection (c) of this section. The early voting
clerk shall notify the early voting clerk to whom the FPCA was forwarded of the
mistake.
(e) Timeliness
of FPCA for mail ballot request purposes.
(1)
The FPCA is considered received for mail ballot request purposes on the date of
actual receipt by the early voting clerk, pursuant to §§
RSA
101.002,
RSA
101.004,
RSA
84.007(d), Election
Code.
(2) If the FPCA is first
received by the county voter registrar's office, the FPCA is considered
received as a request for mail ballot for purposes of an election when the
county voter registrar receives the FPCA on behalf of the county.
(3) Pursuant to §
RSA
101.004(d), Election Code, a
timely FPCA addressed to the wrong early voting clerk shall be forwarded to the
correct early voting clerk not later than the day after it is received by the
wrong early voting clerk.
(4)
Pursuant to §
RSA
101.004, Election Code, if an otherwise
compliant FPCA is postmarked, or received without postmark within the
prescribed dates, the applicant, who:
(A) is
not otherwise permanently registered; and
(B) has not stated that he or she is residing
outside the United States indefinitely, will receive a full ballot based on the
temporary registration status obtained by using the FPCA; otherwise, the
applicant will only receive a "federal ballot" (federal offices only) pursuant
to §
RSA
101.004(f), Election Code.
If the applicant states that he or she is residing outside the United States
indefinitely, the early voting clerk does not forward the FPCA to the voter
registrar since the FPCA will not constitute a permanent voter registration
application, and the FPCA will be treated as a temporary registration and
request for mail ballot for a period of two federal elections in accordance
with §
RSA
101.005 and §
RSA
101.006(a), Election
Code.
(5) The statutes
governing the method of transmission of a mail ballot request shall govern the
method of transmission of an FPCA generally as provided by §
RSA
101.002, Election Code and additionally as
provided by §
RSA
101.004, Election Code as amended.
(A) A scanned FPCA may be submitted to an
early voting clerk whose office has e-mail available via an electronic
transmission of an image, pursuant to §
RSA
101.004, Election Code. The date of
submission of the scanned FPCA is determined by the date and time the
electronic transmission of an image (e.g., e-mail) was sent by the
applicant.
(B) If the FPCA is
submitted by telephonic facsimile (fax) pursuant to §
RSA
84.007, Election Code, the date of submission
is determined by the date and time of receipt as reflected by the time of
receipt on the faxed document (unless the authorized recipient can verify that
the fax machine is in error and the receipt is personally witnessed as being
timely).
(f)
Timeliness of FPCA for voter registration purposes.
(1) The FPCA is considered submitted for
purposes of an application for permanent voter registration for any FPCA
received by an authorized recipient on or after September 1, 2009, pursuant to
§
RSA
13.002, Election Code as amended by House
Bill 536 (2009).
(2) The FPCA is
considered submitted for purposes of an application for permanent voter
registration based on the "date of submission" to the first authorized
recipient (e.g., an early voting clerk or county voter registrar), regardless
of whether the FPCA was received in the correct county, pursuant to §
RSA
13.072, Election Code.
(3) The date of submission of the FPCA for
purposes of an application for permanent voter registration is defined as:
(A) the date of the postmark, if any, in
accordance with §
RSA
13.143(d), Election Code;
or
(B) indicia of the time and date
the voter deposited the FPCA with the common or contract carrier; or
(C) if the FPCA submitted by mail or common
or contract carrier has no postmark or other indicia of the time and date the
voter deposited the FPCA with the common or contract carrier, the date of
submission is then determined by the date of actual receipt by the first
authorized recipient; or
(D) if the
FPCA is submitted by electronic transmission of an image (e.g., e-mail), the
date of submission of the scanned signed FPCA is determined by the date and
time the electronic transmission of an image (e.g., e-mail) was sent by the
applicant; or
(E) if the FPCA is
submitted by telefacsimile (fax), the date of receipt as reflected by the time
of receipt on the faxed document (unless the authorized recipient can verify
that the fax machine is in error and the receipt is personally witnessed as
being timely).
(4) This
rule does not authorize the e-mailing, faxing, or other electronic transmission
of an image of a regular (non-FPCA) voter registration application.
(g) Jury Lists. Voters whose
temporary registrations are based on an FPCA will not form the basis for the
jury lists. Voters whose permanent registrations are based on an FPCA will not
form the basis for the jury lists until the FPCA ceases to function as a basis
for sending the voter a ballot by mail (either because of expiration or
cancellation of the mail ballot request by the voter). When an FPCA voter later
renews or otherwise creates a registration status based on a regular voter
registration application, that registration status will be the basis for the
jury lists.
(h) Petition
Signatures. The FPCA voters with temporary or permanent registration status are
not included in the number of registered voters of a territory when calculating
the number of signatures needed for a petition. This does not bar an FPCA voter
with permanent registration status (who is otherwise eligible to sign a
petition) from signing a petition.
(i) Definitions.
(1) ABBM--Application for Ballot by
Mail.
(2) Authorized recipient--An
early voting clerk or county voter registrar. A volunteer deputy registrar is
not an authorized recipient of a Federal Postcard Application.
(3) Early voting clerk--The early voting
clerk for a county election or a non-county election in which the county early
voting clerk is the early voting clerk by joint election agreement or election
services contract; or, the early voting clerk for a local political subdivision
election (Example: city, school district, water district).
(4) E-mail--For purposes of these rules
refers to a signed hardcopy FPCA which is scanned and attached to an
e-mail.
(5) FPCA--Federal Postcard
Application.
(6) Permanent voter
registration--The registration status equivalent to a voter who applies with a
regular application for voter registration.
(7) Temporary voter registration--The type or
types of registration status based on the FPCA alone under the Texas Election
Code and Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), before
the permanent voter registration is effective.