Substitute House Bill No. 6962
          Substitute House Bill No. 6962

              PUBLIC ACT NO. 97-192


AN  ACT  CLARIFYING  THE  RIGHT  AND PROCEDURES OF
VOTERS WHO ARE NOT ELECTORS TO VOTE  AT  REFERENDA
HELD  IN  CONJUNCTION  WITH  A  STATE OR MUNICIPAL
ELECTION.


    Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and House of
Representatives in General Assembly convened:
    Section   1.  (NEW)  (a)  Whenever  by  law  a
question may be submitted to voters  who  are  not
electors  of  a municipality, the municipality may
submit the question to  a  vote  by  electors  and
voters  held  in  conjunction  with  an  election.
Except as otherwise provided, the general statutes
shall apply to such vote.
    (b)(1)  The  procedures   set  forth  in  this
subsection shall only  apply  if a municipality so
chooses and only  upon  approval of such procedure
by its legislative  body  or  in any town in which
the legislative body  is  a  town  meeting, by the
board of selectmen.
    (2) Voters who  are not electors shall vote by
separate   voting   machine   or   paper   ballot,
containing solely the  question,  at  one separate
location which may  be  a  separate  room  in  the
location at which  electors  vote.  Such  separate
location shall be  treated  as  a  separate voting
district and polling place for such voters, except
that the registrars  of  voters  shall  appoint  a
moderator who shall  be the head moderator for the
purpose of this  question  only,  and  such  other
officials as the  registrars  deem  necessary. The
moderator of such  separate location shall add the
results of the vote by electors on the question to
the results of  the  vote  by  voters  who are not
electors,  and shall  file  such  results  in  the
office of the  municipal  clerk.  The moderator of
such separate location  shall be the moderator for
the purposes of  a  recanvass  of  a close vote on
such question under  section 9-370a of the general
statutes. The head  moderator  of  the  town shall
indicate on the  return  of  vote of such question
filed with the  Secretary  of  the State that such
return does not  include  the  return  of  vote of
voters who are not electors.
    (c)  Voters  who  are not electors and who are
entitled by law to vote by absentee ballot,  shall
be  entitled  to  vote by separate absentee ballot
containing solely  such  question.  Such  absentee
ballot   shall   be   issued   beginning   on  the
thirty-first day before the election, or, if  such
day  is  a  Saturday,  Sunday  or  legal  holiday,
beginning on the next preceding day.
    (d)  The warning of the election shall include
the location where voters who are not electors may
vote.
    Sec.  2.  Subsection (n) of section 9-1 of the
general statutes is repealed and the following  is
substituted in lieu thereof:
    (n)  "Referendum"  means  (1)  a  question  or
proposal which is  submitted  to  a  vote  of  the
electors  OR  VOTERS  of  a  municipality  at  any
regular or special state or municipal election, as
defined   in  this  section,  (2)  a  question  or
proposal which is  submitted  to  a  vote  of  the
electors  or  voters,  as  the  case  may be, of a
municipality at a  meeting  of  such  electors  or
voters,  which  meeting  is  not  an  election, as
defined in subsection (d) of this section, and  is
not  a town meeting, or (3) a question or proposal
which is submitted to a vote of  the  electors  or
voters, as the case may be, of a municipality at a
meeting of such electors  or  voters  pursuant  to
section 7-7 or pursuant to charter or special act.

Approved June 24, 1997