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Minutes for HB2516 - Committee on Elections
Short Title
Raising the number of signatures required for nomination petitions for independent candidates for statewide office and eliminating the option for such candidates to pay a filing fee in lieu of such petitions.
Minutes Content for Thu, Jan 25, 2024
Chairperson Proctor opened the hearing on HB2516 and recognized Assistant Revisor, Mike Heim, Office of Revisor of Statutes who presented overview of the bill. (Attachment 10).
Adam Proffitt, Director of the Budget reviewed the fiscal note.
Written-only proponents for HB2516 included:
Representative Les Mason (Attachment 11)
Neutral for HB2516 included:
Clay Barker, Deputy Secretary of State, voiced concern with increasing the minimum signature threshold to 25,000 and giving the election staff enough time to verify signatures and that any voter who signs an independent candidate petition may not vote in corresponding party primary which is difficult to enforce. (Attachment 12)
Opponents for HB2516 included:
Davis Hammet, Loud Light Civic Action, opposed the bill as it consolidates political party power and creates unnecessary burdens on the pursuit of public service for Kansans who reject party affiliation. (Attachment 13)
Written-only opponents for HB2516 included:
Matt Clark, Libertarian Party of Kansas (Attachment 14)
Kari Sue Vosburgh, Kansas Citizen (Attachment 15)
Brett Anderson, We The People Kansas (Attachment 16)
Missy Leavitt, Kansas Citizen - testimony received after hearing (Attachment 17)
From the audience, Chairperson Proctor recognized Bryan Caskey, Director of Elections, Secretary of State, who answered questions from the committee members.
Chairperson Proctor closed the hearing on HB2516.
Announcements: Next Tuesday, discussion and action on paper ballot auditing and will be hearing HB2517 and HB2511; Thursday we will be having hearing on HB2559 and HB2576.
The meeting adjourned at 4:45pm.
