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Senate panel advances bill requiring 8th-grade readability for citizen ballot titles
Summary
A Senate committee voted to advance House Bill 17‑13, which would require citizen-initiated ballot titles and summaries to meet an eighth-grade readability standard using the Flesch-Kincaid formula; proponents call it voter clarity, opponents and witnesses warn about legal and practical limits of the test.
The Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee on Monday voted to send House Bill 17‑13 to the full Senate after several hours of testimony and public comment. The bill would require citizen-initiated ballot titles and summaries to meet an eighth-grade reading level under the Flesch‑Kincaid grade‑level formula before the attorney general certifies them for the ballot.
Supporters, including Sen. Mark Johnson and Rep. Representative Rose, said the change aims to make complex ballot measures easier for average voters to understand. “We want people who don’t read this kind of stuff for a living … to have a chance to cast their vote on an issue…
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