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Minutes for HB2570 - Committee on Federal and State Affairs
Short Title
Requiring audits of any federal, statewide or state legislative race that is within 1% of the total votes cast and requiring randomized audits of elections procedures used in four counties in even-numbered years.
Minutes Content for Fri, Feb 11, 2022
Chairperson Barker opened the hearing on HB2570. The Revisor provided an overview of the bill.
Chairperson Barker recognized Clay Barker as a proponent of HB2570 (Attachment 1) (Attachment 1A). He stated that this law expands current state law involving post-election audits to include audits of close races and election procedures. This bill requires a close race audit to be conducted in ten percent of the precincts in each county for any race within a one-percent margin. In addition, a procedural audit will be conducted by the Secretary of State's Office where four randomly selected counties are audited in the odd years following a federal election to ensure elections processes and procedures are being followed. Questions were asked by Representatives Hoye, Haswood, and Waggoner.
Chairperson Barker noted that there was written proponent testimony from Stewart Whitson, Opportunity Solutions Project (Attachment 2).
Chairperson Barker recognized Davis Hammet as a neutral on HB2570 (Attachment 3). He stated that with regard to the procedural audit, counties need to clearly know what they are being evaluated on. Section 1(c) should require the Secretary of State to establish the rules, regulations, and parameters of the audit before the election cycle takes place so that guidance is clear to the counties as they prepare and conduct an election to prevent the process from being weaponized after the election. Questions were asked by Representatives Miller, Highberger, and Smith.
Chairperson Barker directed the Committee's attention to the written neutral testimony of Rick Piepho, Kansas County Clerks & Election Officials (Attachment 4).
Representative Penn stated that HB2570 answers the needs of his constituents who do not want to be complacent on election security. This legislation enhances the integrity and security of the election system. These additional post-election audits would increase voter confidence in the election system.
Chairperson Barker recognized Brenda Dwyer who was in the audience. He advised her to submit written testimony within a week. (No written testimony was provided.) She is very concerned about our election process. She purchased from her county, Sumner County, the whole 2020 election results. It indicated that she did not vote, although she had voted. She called 30 of her friends who had voted. The records indicated that 28 of those people had not voted. She worked at the Sedgwick County election office for seven years so she knows how the system works. She stated the only way to clean up the voter rolls is for every county to send out a card to all registered voters. Any cards that are returned due to the person moving or being deceased would result in that person's name being removed from the rolls.
Chairperson Barker closed the hearing on HB2570.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:40 a.m.
