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Committee advances bill to temporarily exempt petition signature packets during verification
Summary
House Bill 1158 would make original petition signature packets exempt from open records requests while the secretary of state's office validates signatures (up to 35 days). The committee gave the bill a 'do pass' recommendation 12‑0 with one absent.
House Bill 1158 would temporarily exempt original signature packets submitted for initiated measures from open‑records requests while the secretary of state's office completes the signature verification process. Secretary of State Michael Howe said the proposed exemption is narrowly drawn to protect the only original record of signatures while staff use the statutorily allotted 35 days to validate petitions.
"This 1 is a is a proactive measure, coming from our office as it relates to once, an initiated measure campaign has concluded, and they turned in signatures to our office," Howe said. He described staff duties during the early days after receipt — inventorying packets, verifying notaries and circulators, and then undertaking signature…
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