Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Election Administration topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee adopts sign-size changes and lays over a ban on prefilled absentee applications
Summary
The committee adopted technical sign-size and disclaimer amendments and agreed to remove prefilled information from third-party absentee ballot applications; both measures were laid over for possible inclusion in omnibus legislation.
After debate on campaign-finance measures, the Senate Elections Committee considered two additional items.
Senators adopted an amendment to campaign-sign rules that substitutes fixed size thresholds for a percentage-based standard, clarifies disclaimer readability (including an explicit recommendation for high-contrast text), and grandparents existing signs printed before a specified compliance date. Jeff Sigurdsson, executive director of the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, clarified that many existing signs will be grandfathered so campaigns and volunteers are not immediately forced to reprint signs.
Separately, Senator West Linn presented a bill to prohibit organizations from distributing absentee ballot application forms that are prefilled with a voter’s personal information. The bill permits organizations to provide blank application forms, or to highlight fields voters should complete, but would bar pre-populating names or addresses to avoid errors that could invalidate ballots. Committee members discussed the balance between assisting voters with low literacy or disabilities and preventing accidental errors; the measure was laid over for possible inclusion.
Both items were left on the committee’s table for potential inclusion in future package bills.
