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Committee advances bill to study municipal election conduct after sparring over which office should lead the review
Summary
House Bill 1633, a proposal to study municipal election issues, passed the Senate Elections Committee 6-2 after debate about whether the secretary of state or the legislature's interim study committee should lead the effort.
House Bill 1633, a measure to study municipal election issues and the conduct of municipal elections, passed the Senate Elections Committee on a 6-2 roll call after members debated who should carry out the study.
Representative Smolz's bill would direct a study of election issues; the chair declined to take a pending amendment at the meeting. Senator Ford said he planned to offer an amendment on second reading to transfer study responsibility from the secretary of state to the legislature's interim study committee, which he described as more bipartisan and nonpartisan.
Chair Trey Gaskell said the secretary of state's office would in practice perform much of the work needed to gather turnout and cost data regardless of which entity formally led the study, and for that reason the chair chose not to hear the amendment at the committee meeting.
On the final roll call the committee advanced the bill 6-2 (No: Senator Ford, Senator Spencer; Yes: Senator Schmidt, Senator Johnson, Senator Rogers, Senator Walker, Senator Good, Chair Gaskell). The transcript notes that the bill had one amendment offered previously but that it would not be heard at this session; Senator Ford said he would bring his amendment on second reading.
