SENATE BILL REPORT

                   HB 1540

              As Reported By Senate Committee On:

            State & Local Government, April 1, 1999

Title:  An act relating to elections.

Brief Description:  Requiring election procedures manuals.

Sponsors:  Representatives D. Schmidt and Romero.

Brief History:

Committee Activity:  State & Local Government:  3/25/99, 4/1/99 [DP].

SENATE COMMITTEE ON STATE & LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Majority Report:  Do pass.

  Signed by Senators Patterson, Chair; Gardner, Vice Chair; Hale, Haugen, Horn, Kline and McCaslin.

Staff:  Eugene Green (786-7405)

Background:  The Secretary of State is the chief elections officer of the state and is authorized to adopt rules relating to election matters that implement state statutes.

County auditors are the local election officials who conduct elections throughout their counties.

Summary of Bill:  Each county auditor is required to develop a written election procedures manual for their county, and copies of the manual must be available at cost.  The Secretary of State assists in preparation of these procedures by providing a model written procedures manual.

Numerous matters are required to be described in the county's procedure manual, including:

$a discussion of different types of ballots and how they are processed and tabulated;

$the electronic vote tallying system used by the county;

$how a voter's registration may be challenged;

$how votes are canvassed and certified by the county canvassing board;

$the procedures for write-in voting and the tallying of write-in votes;

$when and how a true duplicate copy of a ballot is made;

$the procedure for the appointment of observers by major political parties;

$the procedure for appeals to a canvassing board; and

$the process for recounting votes.

Appropriation:  None.

Fiscal Note:  Available.

Effective Date:  Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For:  This bill would be of help to the citizens.

Testimony Against:  None.

Testified:  No one.