HOUSE BILL REPORT

HB 1126

BYRepresentative Rayburn

Permitting double-sided ballot cards.

House Committe on Constitution, Elections & Ethics

Majority Report:  Do pass. (7)

      Signed by Representatives Fisher, Chair; Pruitt, Vice Chair; Amondson, Barnes, Fisch, Leonard and Sanders.

House Staff:Kenneth Hirst (786-7105)

AS PASSED HOUSE MARCH 19, 1987

BACKGROUND:

State law prohibits a ballot card from having printing on the back or any mark on it which would distinguish an individual voter's ballot card from any other from the precinct.

SUMMARY:

At a primary or election in which the names of the candidates or ballot measures are printed on both sides of the ballot card, instructions shall be printed on each side of the card which clearly explain to the voter that the voter is entitled to vote for the candidates or measures on both sides of the ballot card.

Except where necessary to distinguish one ballot type from another in the same precinct, there shall be no identifying marks on a ballot card that would distinguish it from any other ballot card from the same precinct.

Fiscal Note:      Not Requested.

House Committee ‑ Testified For:    John Pearson, Office of the Secretary of State; Darlene Derozier, Cowlitz County Auditor.

House Committee - Testified Against:      None Presented.

House Committee - Testimony For:    There has been an explosion in election technology in recent years. This bill is needed to ensure that a provision of current law may not be interpreted to exclude the use of some of the most recent developments which involve the use of two-sided ballots.

House Committee - Testimony Against:      None Presented.