Two election-related bills passed the House on largely party-line votes in the run-up before Thursday’s big deadline.
One bill would mandate changes to the way the state ensures election integrity while the other would prohibit private funds from being contributed to state and local elections officials to help with elections.
Thursday was the last day for floor votes for legislation in the originating chamber. Any bill that didn’t receive a floor vote is largely dead unless legislative leaders hold a vote to suspend the rules on a particular measure.
House Bill 1510 is sponsored by state Rep. Brent Powell, R-Flowood. It would require county election commissioners to compare the voter rolls with the statewide driver’s license database to determine if the registered voter is a U.S. citizen. The bill would also change the distribution of the state’s Election Support Fund to a ratio of 70 percent to counties and 30 percent to the Secretary of State’s office for upgrades to the Statewide Elections Management System, election security and voter education.
Right now, the Election Support Fund splits 50 percent between the counties and the state’s general fund.
The bill was rewritten (known as a strike-all amendment) that Powell said during debate eliminated much of the objectional provisions, such as a requirement that voters that haven’t cast a ballot in a few election cycles be purged from the voter rolls and the authorization of the Secretary of State to conduct audits either with their staff or by a third-party contractor.
HB 1510 passed Thursday by a 95-24 vote and is headed to the Senate. It has a reverse repealer on it, a legislative tactic that allows lawmakers to keep a bill alive while performing more work on it. The reverse repealer prevents the bill at present from being sent to the governor to become law.
The House also took up another election-related bill on Wednesday.
HB 1365 would forbid state and local election officials from either soliciting or accepting private funds from any non-governmental source for election-related expenses or voter education, voter outreach or registration. The bill is sponsored by House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton.
It passed after being amended on Wednesday by a 78-39 margin. The amendment allows individuals to volunteer their time for voter outreach, registration or other election-related programs as long as they don’t receive any compensation.
Ten states have passed similar laws, including Arizona, Georgia, Texas, Florida and North Carolina.
