Committee adopts substitute for House Bill 74, forwards it to rules

The Financial Institutions and Technology Committee adopted substitute bill 0449-3 as the working version of House Bill 74 and voted to favorably report the substitute to the committee on rules and reference.

Vice Chair Gavaron moved to adopt the substitute. An unidentified reader summarized the substitute’s principal changes: removal of provisions already being implemented by the Department of Administrative Services; clarification of appointments to the cybersecurity and fraud advisory board; renaming the board of voting machines examiners and adding a cybersecurity expert to that board; streamlining the process for an elector to update their voter registration electronically at the BMV while retaining a paper option; clarifying that the attorney general may review and certify titles of statewide ballot issues; expanding post-election audits to cover all elections; prohibiting most people from filling out another person’s voter registration or absentee ballot request form except when assistance is required due to blindness, disability or illiteracy; and requiring signature sheets to disclose whether circulators are paid when gathering signatures to form a new political party.

The chair noted the committee had received no testimony on the bill. The clerk called the roll on the motion to favorably report the substitute; the chair announced the result as a unanimous favorable report. The chair then closed the third hearing of the substitute.

The substitute will be forwarded to the committee on rules and reference for further consideration.