Senate rejects amendment to move election study from secretary of state to interim committee; bill ordered to engrossment

Senate debate on House Bill 16-33 included a contested amendment that would have shifted responsibility for an elections cost study away from the secretary of state and to the Legislature’s interim study committee on elections. Senator JD Ford offered the amendment, arguing an interim committee would provide a bipartisan venue and more reliable minority participation.

“The work that we do should be done in a bipartisan way,” Senator Ford said on the floor as he presented the amendment. He argued the secretary of state’s office is partisan and that interim committees can ensure minority input and continuity of staffing.

Senator Gaskell, the bill’s author on the Senate floor, replied that the secretary of state’s office is the entity with the data and capabilities to conduct a cost study of holding municipal elections in odd-numbered years. She asked senators to defeat the amendment and leave the study in the secretary’s office, as the House had provided.

After a roll-call vote the amendment failed, 11 ayes to 37 noes, and the bill was ordered to engrossment with no further amendments recorded on the floor. That outcome keeps the study assignment with the secretary of state’s office as provided in the House language. Senator Ford requested a roll call on the amendment before the tally.

The transcript shows senators discussed who chairs interim election committees and noted legislative chairs can request information from the secretary of state. The failed amendment itself was narrowly focused on where the study duty would sit, not on the study’s substantive scope.