Brief⁽¹⁾

S.B. 230 would make a number of amendments to election laws. Specifically the bill would:

• �Repeal the requirement that the county election office mail election ballots and notices of the disposition of voter registration applications by first class mail.



• �Require the county or district attorney of the county where a recall petition is filed to determine, within five days of receipt of the petition from the county election officer, the sufficiency of the grounds for recall stated in the petition. Under existing law, blank recall petitions must be filed with the county election officer prior to circulation for signatures. The bill would enact a new requirement that when the county election officer receives a recall petition, a copy of the petition would have to be submitted to the county or district attorney for determination of sufficiency. The time for collecting signatures on a recall petition would begin when the recall committee receives notice from the county or district attorney that the grounds for recall stated in the petition are sufficient.



• �Prohibit a person from being nominated by more than one party, or from being nominated and filing as an independent candidate, for the same office. A person who is nominated by more than one party for the same office would have to file with the county election officer a statement designating the nomination the person wishes to accept. Such statement would have to be filed within seven days of receipt of the last nomination. If the nominee does not make the required filing, the election officer would designate the nomination that would be the official one. Under current law, the statement declining a second or subsequent nomination must be filed by June 10.



• �Allow the voting squares for ballots to be printed on a different piece of paper than the one on which candidate names and statements of questions are printed. The bill also would repeal an existing statute that requires a separate ballot for special questions submitted to voters by a school district.



• �Allow the county election officer in any county having a population greater than 250,000 (currently only Johnson and Sedgwick counties) to designate places other than the central county election office as satellite voting sites for purposes of advance voting. The bill would authorize the sites to be used for in-person advance voting.



• �Permit county election officers to conduct mass or targeted mailings to registered voters to confirm voting eligibility.

Background

The Senate Committee deleted from the introduced version of the bill a provision that would have amended existing law regarding vacancies in the office of state senator and the election time frame following an appointment to fill such a vacancy; a prohibition against dual nomination; a provision that would have required inclusion of the last four digits of a person's Social Security number on advance voting ballot applications; and the provisions regarding recall petitions.

The Senate Committee of the Whole amendment was clarifying in nature.

The House Committee amended the bill to include the recall petition and dual nomination provisions.

The House Committee of the Whole amended the provisions of: H.B. 2228 (allowing voting squares to be printed on a separate piece of paper from the ballot), H.B. 2325 (establishing advance voting satellite offices), and a provision from H.B. 2231 (permit mass mailings to registered voters). In addition, the Committee reinstated current law regarding the day for county canvas of votes and requests for recounts. New sections 4 and 5 of the bill are provisions of current law at K.S.A. 25-306. They have been separated into free-standing statutes for clarity.

1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/bill_search.html