RÉSUMÉ DIGEST
HB 646 2023 Regular Session Farnum
Present law requires each registrar of voters to conduct an annual canvass of registered voters
no later than June 30th in order to update voter registration records. Elements of the annual
canvass include:
(1)A requirement that the Dept. of State use the U.S. Postal Service or its licensee to
verify names and addresses of registered voters.
(2)A requirement that the registrar of voters send an address confirmation card to each
registrant whose address is not verified or whose corrected address is outside of the
parish and place the names of such registrants on the inactive list of voters.
Proposed law would have required that either the registrar of voters or the Dept. of State send
address confirmation notices.
Proposed law would have required the Dept. of State to conduct an annual canvass no later
than June 30th in order to update voter registration records. Elements of the canvass would
have included:
(1)A requirement that the secretary of state identify registered voters for whom there is
not a corrected address and who have not participated in an election, updated their
registration information, or taken other specified actions in the previous 10 years.
However, the first canvass conducted by the Dept. of State would apply only to
registrants who failed to take action within the past 30 years; the second canvass
conducted by the Dept. of State would apply only to registrants who failed to take
action within the past 20 years.
(2)A requirement that the secretary of state send such persons an address confirmation
notice and place the names of such registrants on the inactive list of voters.
(Proposed to amend R.S. 18:192, 193(H), and 198(A); proposed to add R.S. 18:191.1;
proposed to repeal R.S. 18:193(B) and (I))
VETO MESSAGE:
"This bill is similar to House Bill 35 of the 2022 Regular Session and House Bill 138 of the
2021 Regular Session. Those bills would have required the Secretary of State to conduct a
supplemental annual canvass of voters in addition to the existing annual canvass conducted
by registrars of voters pursuant to La. R.S. 18:192. The primary difference in House Bill 646
is that the supplemental annual canvass would occur at the same time as the regular annual
canvass, instead of after registrars send address confirmation cards. Even with this minor
change, the supplemental annual canvass would remain duplicative and expand the
possibility that voters would be removed from the rolls.
For the same reasons I vetoed House Bill 138 in 2021 and House Bill 35 in 2022, I have
vetoed House Bill 646."