House State Administration Committee concurs in series of Senate election and administrative bills; SB128 tabled

The Montana House State Administration Committee on Wednesday took executive action on a package of Senate bills, concurring in most measures relating to election procedures and administrative rules and tabling one contested bill after a roll-call vote.

The committee, chaired by Chair Darling, approved bills covering agency procedures, ballot-language formatting, electronic bond submissions for state construction, state building-code review, county canvassing and vote-count procedures, and revisions to public-notice and voter-registration rules. Miss Power, an agency staff member with the Department of Administration, explained several measures and an amendment to Senate Bill 11, and answered member questions on a fiscal note and statutory changes.

The package included both agency bills and bills coming out of interim election-related committees. Miss Power said of an amendment to Senate Bill 11: "this amendment was approved by the bill sponsor. It came from, election administrators and folks in the secretary of state's office. And I know that it looks beefy. There's a lot of words, but it a lot of it is really just, clarifying things." She explained that…