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Minutes for HB2086 - Committee on Elections
Short Title
Amending statutes concerning election procedures and election officials.
Minutes Content for Tue, Feb 7, 2023
Note: At the request of Chairperson Proctor, the Secretary of State's office re-surveyed the counties to give accurate data regarding the number of ballots received and counted after the 2022 general election. That memo was received and forwarded to the Election Committee members and a copy is attached. (Attachment 1)
Chairperson Proctor opened the hearing on HB 2086 and asked Jason Long, Assistant Revisor, Office of Revisor of Statutes, to give an overview of the bill. (Attachment 2)
Revisor Long answered questions.
Chairperson Proctor recognized Clay Barker, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, General Counsel, to present proponent testimony for HB 2086. Mr. Barker indicated this legislation comprises 90 statute changes to update the election code. Many of these improvements are responses to specific incidents in recent elections, while others address contradictory or vague statutes. (Attachment 3), (Attachment 4)
Mr. Barker stood for questions.
Rick Piepho, Election Committee Chair, Kansas County Clerks and Election Officials Association, provided proponent testimony via WebEx. The Kansas County Clerks and Elections Officials Association supports this bill that will cleanup multiple election statutes and timelines, enhance security, clarify roles of election officials, and increase transparency. (Attachment 5)
Questions were directed to Mr. Piepho.
There were no other proponents.
Mike Burgess, Director of Policy & Outreach, Disability Rights Center of Kansas, gave several reasons why he opposed this bill stating one of them was the change in Sec. 27 of the bill on page 24 line 40 to change the word "four" to "two" consecutive general elections is a significant policy change buried in this very comprehensive bill. (Attachment 6)
Davis Hammet, Loud Light Civic Action, also provided opponent testimony. He suggested that the Committee oppose the current version of HB 2086 and deliberate a more narrowly focused cleanup bill that does not raise new concerns while trying to resolve old ones. (Attachment 7)
Written-only opponent testimony was received from the following:
Brett Anderson (Attachment 8)
Stacie Harvey, Kansas Citizen (Attachment 9)
Kari Sue Vosburgh, Wichita Resident (Attachment 10)
Providing written-only neutral testimony was:
Aileen Berquist, Policy Director, American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas (Attachment 11)
There was no other testimony on HB 2086.
Chairperson Proctor thanked the conferees for their testimony and closed the hearing on HB 2086.
