Assembly committee amends and recommends do-pass on SB 100, setting Secretary of State duties and vendor approvals

The Assembly Committee on Legislative and Operations voted to amend and recommend that the Assembly pass Senate Bill 100 during a brief work session.

Haley Proll, committee policy analyst, summarized SB 100 as sponsored by Senator Daley. Proll said the bill would require the Secretary of State to adopt regulations to ensure timely performance of certain election duties, to notify certain persons or local governing bodies if an election official fails to perform those duties, and to provide enforcement steps if those duties are not performed in a timely manner.

Proll described the timelines in the bill as follows: if the matter is not addressed within 48 hours after notice, the Secretary of State must file a complaint with the attorney general, who must initiate proceedings within 30 days; if, within 72 hours of notice, the public officer or person willfully failed to initiate action as required, the Secretary of State may seek a writ of mandamus to compel performance. The bill also would require the Secretary of State to approve vendors of mechanical voting systems and mechanical recording devices used in elections and would require cities and counties to obtain Secretary of State approval before changing vendors.

Proll said Senator Daley proposed an amendment to remove the bill’s original penalty provision that would have made willful failures by certain election officials a category E felony. The committee then moved to amend and recommend that the bill be passed with the proposed amendment.

Vice Chair Gonzales moved to amend and do pass SB 100; Assembly Member Haddig seconded. The motion carried. Assembly Members Dickman, Hibbits, Cole and Edgeworth were recorded as voting no. The committee assigned the floor statement to Assembly Member Nadeem and closed the work session.

The committee took no public testimony on SB 100 at this meeting.