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Committee approves secretary of state cleanup bill for election administration with agency amendments
Summary
House Bill 11-65, a multi-section election cleanup bill covering petition timelines, soil conservation petitions, ballot printing and ballot rotation, was presented by Rep. Scott Louser and State Election Director Erica White; the committee adopted agency-proposed amendments and gave the bill a due pass as amended.
The Senate State and Local Government Committee considered House Bill 11-65, a broad election "cleanup" bill that seeks uniform practices for nomination petitions, ballot printing, absentee envelopes, election-judge procedures and ballot-rotation rules.
Representative Scott Louser introduced the measure, describing it as technical cleanup for multiple election-related code sections. "There’s a number of sections ... that I think the elections director will probably cover," Louser said, and he turned the panel over to Erica White, state election director in the Secretary of State’s office.
Erica White walked the committee through the bill section by section. She said the bill would remove an unnecessary Secretary of State certification step for soil conservation district nomination petitions, define "complete residential address" for petition signers, codify a timeline for final petition format review (a proposed 15-business-day closeout), prohibit contracting with out-of-state third parties to administer elections, give county auditors more administrative tools to remove or address election-judge misconduct, require uniform statewide ballot printers as directed by the secretary of state, and simplify the ballot-rotation algorithm to rely on eligible-voter counts rather than an intricate governor-election precinct-total formula.
White explained the ballot-rotation change to senators during Q&A: "The idea is trying to get candidates appearing in the first rotation in front of an equal number of voters," she said, describing the current complexity and the reason for moving to eligible-voter counts.
Committee members adopted the agency-drafted amendments. Senator Castaneda moved to adopt the proposed amendment drafted by the secretary of state's office; Senator Wallen seconded. The committee later voted to give the bill a due pass as amended and refer it on (roll calls recorded in committee minutes).
Why it matters: The bill addresses operational issues that affect how counties and the state administer ballots, petitions and absentee voting materials. Provisions on petition timing, ballot rotation and uniform ballot materials aim to reduce confusion for voters and local administrators and to simplify programming of a new election management system.
The committee recorded committee-level action on the bill (adoption of the agency amendment and a committee recommendation of due pass as amended), and staff and the secretary of state's office said they would proceed with the updated language and follow-up with technical drafting as needed.
