HCB 10 - This act modifies various provisions relating to elections. The act permits the committee of each major political party within the jurisdiction of an election authority to provide a list of qualified election judge candidates. The act also repeals a provision requiring an election authority to obtain the permission of another election authority before appointing a person as an election judge who is registered to vote in the other election authority. These provisions are identical to HB 974 (2019).
The act repeals the class four election offense prohibiting voters from allowing another person to see his or her ballot with the intent of letting it be known how he or she is, or has, voted. The act additionally creates the class one election offense of coercing, intimidating, or pressuring a voter to vote in a certain manner and attempting to verify the result of such acts by obtaining photographic evidence. These provisions are identical to HCS/HB 656 (2019).
The act standardizes the use of signature sheets for purposes of initiative and referendum petitions by requiring the Secretary of State to prescribe forms for such sheets. Such sheets shall be made available in an electronic format and used for all initiative and referendum petitions. This provision is substantially similar to provisions in SCS/SB 5 (2019), SB 256 (2019), HB 290 (2019), HB 496 (2019), SS/SCS/SB 893 (2018), and HCS/HB 1289 (2018).
The Secretary of State is required to collect a fee of $350 for each petition sample sheet filed with its office, with an additional $25 fee for each page that the measure exceeds ten pages. Fees shall be refunded if the measure is certified for the ballot. All such fees shall be deposited into the Petition Trust Fund, created by this act. This provision is substantially similar to provisions in SCS/SB 5 (2019), HB 290 (2019), HB 1055 (2019), SS/SCS/SB 893 (2018), and HCS/HB 1289 (2018).
The act additionally requires all petitions to contain a statement indicating the word length of proposed language of each measure. This provision is identical to HCS/HB 322 (2019).
SCOTT SVAGERA