Committee advances bill to limit public posting of candidate home addresses

House File 3363, sponsored by Representative Freiberg, would reduce public exposure of candidate and legislator street addresses in committee-related filings and make permanent recent administrative deletions made by the Campaign Finance Board after safety concerns in June. The committee adopted two amendments and moved the bill to the General Register on April 9.

Representative Freiberg said the bill was developed with Campaign Finance Board Director Jeff Sigurdsson and the Secretary of State’s office to address instances where legislators’ home addresses were publicly available and posed safety risks. Freiberg told the committee the legislation targets specific website locations and filing records where addresses remain available and clarifies the transition process for filings that may occur during a changeover of rules.

Co-chair Scott offered an amendment (A17) that revised security-expense and disclosure language; Representative Freiberg accepted the amendment as friendly. A subsequent amendment (A16) addressed technical clarifications requested by House Research and the Secretary of State, including a provision that street addresses on prior candidate filings be treated as private data and rules for handling nominating petitions filed under previous forms. After the amendments were adopted, Representative Freiberg renewed the motion to place HF 3363 on the General Register and the motion prevailed.

Sponsors said the bill balances candidate safety and public accountability; supporters included the Campaign Finance Board director (available to answer questions) and Secretary of State staff who helped refine transition language. No roll-call vote listing individual members was recorded in the transcript for the final motion to place the bill on the General Register; committee action moved the first engrossment forward for further floor consideration.