§ 16.1-07-08 — Delivering ballots - Envelopes accompanying - Affidavit on envelope - Challenging electors voting by absentee ballot - Inability of elector to sign name

Challenging electors voting by absentee ballot - Inability of elector to sign name.
1. Upon receipt of an application for an official ballot properly filled out and duly signed,
or as soon after receipt of the application as the official ballot for the precinct in which
the applicant resides has been prepared, the county auditor, city auditor, or business
manager of the school district, as the case may be, shall send to the absent voter by
mail or secure electronic delivery, if the secretary of state determines the necessary
technology is available and according to the choice made by the voter on the
application for the ballot, at the expense of the political subdivision conducting the
election, one official ballot, or personally deliver the ballot to the applicant or the
applicant's agent, which agent may not, at that time, be a candidate for any office to be
voted upon by the absent voter. The agent shall sign the agent's name before
receiving the ballot and deposit with the auditor or business manager of the school
district, as the case may be, authorization in writing from the applicant to receive the
ballot or according to requirements set forth for signature by mark. The auditor or
business manager of the school district, as the case may be, may not provide an
absent voter's ballot to an individual acting as an agent who cannot provide a signed,
written authorization from an applicant. A person may not receive compensation,
including money, goods, or services, for acting as an agent for an elector, and a
person may not act as an agent for more than four electors in any one election. A voter
voting by absentee ballot may not require the political subdivision providing the ballot
to bear the expense of the return postage for an absentee ballot.
2. With the exception provided in section 16.1-07-24 for secure remote electronic casting
of a ballot granted to a covered voter, the absent voter marking the ballot by electronic
means shall return the instrument containing the vote selections made by the voter to
the assigned polling place where, after being recorded in the pollbook by a poll clerk,
the choices listed in the instrument will be converted into the official ballot. Upon
confirmation by the voter the vote selections marked by the ballot marking device are
correct, the voter shall cast the ballot in the tabulation device.
3. Any qualified elector living with a disability that prevents the elector from reading or
marking the ballot without assistance and who wishes to cast an absentee ballot may
mark the electronic ballot by electronic means. The voter then shall deposit the ballot
electronically on the secure server that is used by covered voters as defined in section