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Committee advances a package of election-administration measures including removal of fax references and campaign-reporting changes
Summary
The Ethics and Elections Committee passed a set of bills streamlining election procedures: House Bill 2,939 removes obsolete fax references (6–0); House Bill 3,306 lowers the candidate committee reporting threshold to $400 (6–0); and House Bill 41‑13 clarifies restoration of voting rights for people with felony convictions (6–0).
The House Ethics and Elections Committee approved several largely administrative election measures in a single meeting.
House Bill 2,939, sponsored by Chairman Olsen, removes references to fax machines from state election law at the request of the state election board. Paul Zierix told the committee that very few voters use fax to return absentee ballots and that "it's really not a secure way to do it." The bill passed unanimously, 6–0.
House Bill 3,306 was amended to change the candidate committee filing threshold from $1,000 to more than $400. The sponsor described the change as a transparency measure: "This is a transparency bill," the sponsor said, arguing it would make reporting consistent across candidates. The committee passed the bill 6–0.
Representative West presented House Bill 41‑13 and an amendment that clarifies Oklahoma statute on voting rights for people with felony convictions, establishing that individuals regain the right to vote after they have fully served any term of incarceration, parole, supervision and probation. Members asked whether fines and fees are included in the conditions; Representative West confirmed fines and fees are part of the completion criteria. The committee approved the bill 6–0.
All three bills were advanced out of committee and will proceed to the next step in the legislative process.
