Committee advances three bills: campaign finance recodification, foreign-contribution limits and obituaries for voter-roll updates

The House Elections Committee voted by voice to advance three bills on its agenda: a campaign finance recodification and agency rename, a measure tightening prohibitions on foreign contributions for efforts to amend or repeal parts of the Kansas Constitution, and a bill allowing county election officials to use online obituary notices to update voter rolls.

House Bill 2206: campaign finance recodification and ethics commission name change

House Bill 2206 was taken up first. Caitlin Bull Stewart, general counsel for the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission, told the committee the commission remained neutral on policy but offered technical comments on recently circulated amendment language. Stewart said the amendment changes the political-committee determination from a single-year test to a five-year look-back, which “would decrease the risk of some of the gameability” and give the commission more data for investigations. She also said the amendment lowers the registration…