Elections Committee

Senator Michelle Reagan, Chairman

Cherie Stone, Research Analyst Nicholas Jones, Intern

ELECTIONS COMMITTEE

LEGISLATION ENACTED

contribution limits; clean election authority (S.B. 1344) – Chapter 225 Declares that alleged violations of campaign contribution and expense requirements by candidates for statewide or legislative offices not participating in the Citizen’s Clean Elections Act Funding System (non-participating candidates) are subject to general provisions pertaining to clean election contributions and expenses and the authority of the Secretary of State and Attorney General. Prohibits the Citizens’ Clean Elections Commission from accepting, investigating or acting on any complaint alleging violation of campaign finance statutes by non-participating candidates. Additionally, this legislation relocates and recasts existing exceptions to the definition of independent expenditure and requires that an elections official use exceptions as evidence of coordination when evaluating whether an expenditure is an independent expenditure. elections; candidate; ballot measure signatures (H.B. 2107) – Chapter 45

Online Signature Collection System (system) – Instructs the Secretary of State (SOS) to provide an online system for voters to sign nomination petitions and Citizens Clean Elections five dollar contribution qualification forms for candidates for statewide and legislative offices. Specifies requirements for the system. Portions of the bill concerning the online collection system for nomination petition signatures and Citizens Clean Elections five dollar contribution qualification forms are subject to the requirements for enactment for initiatives and referendums (Proposition 105), which requires the affirmative vote of at least three-fourths of the members of each house of the Legislature.

Petition Circulators (circulators) – Directs the SOS to make circulator training materials

available to each person or organization circulating a statewide initiative, referendum or recall petition. Requires a person or organization circulating a statewide petition to provide each circulator with training materials and to submit training material receipts to the SOS before filing petitions. Specifies that failure to provide or submit circulator training materials or receipts is not grounds for removal of signatures or signature sheets.

Requires nonresident and paid circulators for statewide ballot measures to register with the SOS prior to circulating petitions and prescribes circulator registration content requirements. Directs the SOS to establish a procedure for registering circulators and instructs the SOS to disqualify petition signatures collected by a circulator who fails to register as required. Invalidates signatures collected by a registered circulator who is properly served with a subpoena to provide evidence in an action regarding circulation of petitions and who fails to appear or provide documents as required. Details the conditions for proper service of process of a subpoena and permits the party serving the subpoena to request the SOS to remove any signatures collected by the subpoenaed circulator. Permits a person challenging petition signatures to amend their complaint after the SOS has removed signatures. Allows any person to challenge the lawful registration of circulators in superior court, and provides a timeframe in

which challenges must be decided by the court. Specifies that the removal of one or more circulators does not render the random sample of signatures by the SOS invalid. Requires that recall petitions include a space for the circulator to state their paid or volunteer circulator status and directs circulators to designate their paid or volunteer status prior to circulating the petition for signatures. Requires each initiative, referendum, and recall petition to include a statement that it is unlawful to sign a petition before it has a serial number. Presidential Preference Election – Requires that the Presidential Preference Election (PPE) be held on the Tuesday immediately following March 15, rather than the fourth Tuesday in February, and permits the Governor to proclaim that the PPE be held on a later date. election law amendments; repeal… (H.B. 2196) – Chapter 5

Repeals Laws 2013, Chapter 209 which included a series of statutory modifications with regard to requirements related to initiative, referendum, recall and nomination petitions, early voting and the permanent early voting list. Laws 2013, Chapter 209 became the subject of a referendum petition that subsequently obtained a sufficient number of signatures to qualify for placement on the 2014 general election ballot, which if passed would preclude the provisions contained within the legislation from going into effect.

officeholder expense accounts; surplus monies (H.B. 2615) – Chapter 177 Permits statewide or legislative officeholders, who will not continue to hold their current offices or any other elected offices, to donate monies remaining in their officeholder accounts after April 30 of an election year. Specifies that monies may only be donated to either another person’s political committee, excluding exploratory committees and campaign committees, or an organization that qualifies under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. campaign finance; election; candidate committees (H.B. 2665) – Chapter 241 E

An emergency measure, effective April 25, 2014, and retroactive to September 13, 2013, that provides requirements with regard to the application, transfer and combination of campaign contributions made to a political committee, an individual’s exploratory committee or a candidate’s campaign committee.

Requires a candidate to designate a single candidate campaign committee that applies to

both the primary and general election for a designated office. Requires a political committee, candidate’s campaign committee or an individual’s exploratory committee to use an acceptable accounting method to distinguish between contributions received for the primary and general elections, if a committee receives contributions designated for the general election prior to the primary election. Permits a candidate’s campaign committee to transfer or contribute monies in the aggregate to another campaign committee designated by the same candidate, including a committee for another office or in another jurisdiction, if both committees have been designated for an election in the same year. Directs the Secretary of State to modify the campaign finance reporting system and to combine separate committees created for the 2014 election cycle, by April 30, 2014.

Exempts contributions made to an individual’s exploratory or candidate’s campaign committee from application to the primary election, if any of the following apply: 1) the contributor has designated otherwise; 2) the application of the contribution would exceed a contribution limit; or 3) the contribution was received after the primary election and was not used to retire primary election debt. Permits a candidate’s exploratory or campaign committee to apply the portion of a contribution that exceeds a primary contribution limit to the general election or to refund the excess amount. Specifies that contributions made to a candidate for the general election are solely for influencing the general election. Permits a candidate that prevails in the primary election to combine unexpended or unencumbered primary election contributions with general election contributions. Allows a candidate to combine all contributions for use in a subsequent election, after the general election.