House State Agencies & Govt'l Affairs Committee
Video
Transcript
Bills discussed (6)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
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HB1017
· 4 mentions in chapter, transcript
Matched: “HB1017”
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Pre-2017 bill | ||
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HB2154
· 2 mentions in chapter, transcript
Matched: “HB2154”
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Pre-2017 bill | ||
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HB1928
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “HB1928”
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Pre-2017 bill | ||
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HB2054
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “HB2054”
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Pre-2017 bill | ||
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HB2078
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “HB2078”
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Pre-2017 bill | ||
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HB2181
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “HB2181”
|
Pre-2017 bill |
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Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
0:00
Without objections, we're going to start with House Bill 1017, Representative Garner, who feels that this is a very easy presentation. If you would, Representative Garner, if you'd go to the end of the table and present your bill. You have an
Speaker 4
0:24
amendment? I do. I believe I'm Mr. Broadway. I think I may have one.
Representative Ed Garner
Unverified
0:31
You're passing it out now. I think the staff is passing it
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
0:36
out now. Move for adoption of the amendment. We have a motion to
Speaker 9
0:41
approve the amendment. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Say no. You've
Representative Ed Garner
Unverified
0:47
adopted your amendment. You're now ready to speak on your bill as amended. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman, committee. The House Bill 1017 is the language that puts higher ed, gives them a link to the Open Checkbook website. The amendment being passed out is amendment from higher ed making more flexible the rules.
They had some great suggestions about the format and in the discussion of the Open Checkbook law, Representative Roebuck mentioned that 20 percent of the state's budget goes through higher ed. They need to be on here. And actually, this is verbatim the language of that amendment. I would appreciate a good vote. Are
Speaker 14
1:30
you ready for questions? Certainly. Representative Roebuck. Thank you.
Speaker 16
1:37
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, Mr. Garner. I just
Representative Johnnie J. Roebuck
Unverified
1:41
want to be clear. When
When I presented the amendment that I thought was friendly, it became hostile, and I went to Senator Dismang and asked that my amendment be included in his open checkbook or transparency bill, and he would not do that. And so could you tell me why you think that it could not have been in the transparency bill? Well,
Representative Ed Garner
Unverified
2:08
at the point that that amendment was produced, there was not the
amount of work with higher ed that this is that this is done and so with that the costs were uncertain and it was potentially going to slow that down when the votes were already there but it was certainly a good idea and higher ed had been working on this issue on when I had run open checkbook and it had basically stopped with representative or Senator Dismang's bill so now they've taken this back up and I think we have a great piece of legislation and the
concerns that you had are valid and important I think we've got support to I mean it's the law is the law whether it was in that bill and would have either slowed the process or not it's going right into the statute right where that that is so same
Representative Johnnie J. Roebuck
Unverified
3:05
same bill just to clarify so senator dismayings bill takes care of 80 percent of transparency, and what I hear you saying, this bill will take care of the other 20 percent of the transparency.
Representative Ed Garner
Unverified
3:18
This bill takes care of exactly the amount of transparency that you were trying to provide in your amendments, Representative Robo.
Representative Johnnie J. Roebuck
Unverified
3:26
But it is your understanding that then this is a separate transparency bill. I mean, it won't be included in the
Representative Ed Garner
Unverified
3:34
other. It will go into the code exactly as
Representative Johnnie J. Roebuck
Unverified
3:38
your amendment would have gone in. Okay. So you're connecting the Web sites of the institutions. They will actually put this information on their Web site, and then the citizens of Arkansas
can look at each individual institution's Web site to get this expenditure of data. That is my understanding, and higher ed is working
Representative Ed Garner
Unverified
3:59
on a format that will be ubiquitous across all the institutions of higher ed so that it
is similar enough to be usable by the taxpayer. That's an additional amount of work. And what is the cost? I do not know. But two years ago
Representative Johnnie J. Roebuck
Unverified
4:18
in your bill, what was the cost for higher ed?
Representative Ed Garner
Unverified
4:23
My two years ago, I did not have a bill.
Representative Johnnie J. Roebuck
Unverified
4:31
Who did? Somebody did. That was Representative Greenberg's. My bill was materially
Representative Ed Garner
Unverified
4:35
different. I apologize. Do you remember the cost at that time? I
Representative Johnnie J. Roebuck
Unverified
4:38
do not remember the cost of Representative Greenberg's bill. Do you remember what Senator Disbank said the cost would be
Representative Ed Garner
Unverified
4:44
if we included it in his bill? I only remember the cost of my bill because he was not including. I did not read the cost of higher ed in his bill because higher ed wasn't in his bill.
What this does is basically puts higher ed into transparency. Okay. All right. Thank you.
Speaker 31
4:59
Thank you for clarifying. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, ma'am. Thank you.
Speaker 33
5:06
Representative Cowling. I think it was ethanol, but this would be an additional
Representative Ed Garner
Unverified
5:10
cost, right? I'm certain it would be,
Representative Linda S. Tyler
Unverified
5:16
yes. Thank you. Representative Tyler. Representative Garner, help me clarify. You said that each institution will put their data on their website?
Representative Ed Garner
Unverified
5:26
That's my understanding. But it will be in a format that higher
ed department is working on, so that it will be, so it will look the
Representative Linda S. Tyler
Unverified
5:38
same to the taxpayer. Their data is already. On your bill on page one, line 30, you say a state-supported institution of higher ed shall present expenditure data on a website operated by the state-supported institution of higher ed.
Does that mean that's the institution, like that's UCA, or is that the Department of Higher Ed? What
Representative Ed Garner
Unverified
6:04
does that mean? The website will be, and those are nominal costs, the website will be maintained by the state-supported institution. The format for the website will be common, and that's what Higher Ed is working on, so that it looks the same, so that we're reporting the same, the same stuff by each institution.
Representative Linda S. Tyler
Unverified
6:28
However, that data already exists. So if I, in terms of transparency, so if there is a UCA website and there is a UALR website. Right. And so I'm a citizen, want to go in and do comparisons of the effectiveness of those institutions. I go into the website of UCA and I gather data. Then I have to go into the website of UALR and gather data. And I've got to be able to pull that together to have any meaningful understanding of that, don't I?
Representative Ed Garner
Unverified
7:01
Absolutely. And that is why the higher ed is putting the formats so that those match up and are similar. That is not you as the taxpayer will have to overcome that hurdle because until we put all the institutions of higher ed on the same data system on the transparency website, there's no way to avoid that without huge cost. That's a huge cost. So the data already exists. The formats will be designed or suggested, worked on by higher ed,
show this format at least, at least at nominal cost, the taxpayer is going to be able to look at how does higher ed spend their money.
Speaker 53
7:45
May I follow up, please, sir? Yes, ma'am.
Representative Linda S. Tyler
Unverified
7:50
Representative Garner, as I know I'm not a technologist at all. We've learned over this session there's a lot of things I'm not. So I'm not a technologist either. But as I understand it, each of these, they have different accounting systems. They have different payroll systems.
How much is it going to cost each institution to be able to translate their expenditure into a common, format? Well, by common format, you would
Representative Ed Garner
Unverified
8:16
have the information exists in
each of these systems is already common. However, getting them to talk to one another to put them on a single website for transparency, because they use different computer systems. However, they still get the same data, so all they're doing is putting, and I do have some background
in this, but all they're doing is putting that data on their own website, and I'm familiar with PHP databases. They're not having to do any conversion. All they're having to do is bring up to their website, populate it with the data of their system, and show it. And what they show will be in a similar format determined by the Department of Higher Education. We want you to show these things. Use your system to show this so that the public can look
at what is shown and it be similar. But as far as having to translate it or adapt computer software, we're not asking them to do that because that's where the cost is huge. This data already exists within their systems. We're going to use their systems. We're simply going to populate their website. That's a very nominal thing to do. We're saying to the data in their system, you will take this payroll data and you will put it into this field on the website.
And that's easy. However, I do know that
Representative Linda S. Tyler
Unverified
9:44
the charts of accounts are different. What they call things are different. So it's going to take an astute citizen to be able to figure that out. One other thing.
Representative Ed Garner
Unverified
9:55
Not really, because the data can
be populated. You can label a field on a website, anything you want, call it anything you want, but that data that populates it, it, that number, that may be called something different in your system, but when I tell
that PHP code to go out here
and populate this with the payroll, I can call it payroll. That's not an inconsequential
effort. MR. Having been involved in the design of that,
Representative Linda S. Tyler
Unverified
10:28
I assure you it is. MS. Okay. Thank you. I really think that one last thing. MR. Yes, ma'am. MS. I like the sunshine laws. I just don't think we're going to come anywhere near getting the capability
from what you're proposing as we got from Senator Disman's bill. You're going to get
Representative Ed Garner
Unverified
10:49
as much as we can get in the short amount of time without spending a huge amount of money. Thank you, sir. Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 62
11:00
Representative Harper. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Representative
Representative Karen S. Hopper
Unverified
11:07
Garner, I know that in your amendment it says that, of course, the Department of Higher Education may promulgate the rules necessary to implement this.
I'm interested in your – what you envision when we go back to the original bill draft line 34 where it says be updated on a regular basis. What do you envision there as defining regular? Again,
Representative Ed Garner
Unverified
11:35
we're trying to be as cooperative with the Department of Higher Education as possible. Now, Senator Dismang and DFNA working in the other agencies has that up to almost a nightly
basis. We're not pushing that because if institutions of higher ed don't run those programs or refresh on a nightly basis, we're not trying to add additional costs to that. What this bill does is basically say higher ed is going to be transparent, and we're going to do it at the lowest cost possible, and computer-wise, it's very doable, and we're going to let the Department
of Higher Ed put together
a format that every taxpayer can look at.
Representative Karen S. Hopper
Unverified
12:23
Thank you, and I agree with what you said. I checked with my campus several weeks ago and it was like no-brainer there was no resistance whatsoever just tell us what you want and we'll put it on our website and we're
Representative Ed Garner
Unverified
12:38
very much supportive of this I've I have a two-year in my district I've worked extensively with one of the people who teach computer programming and databases and programming and you know I mean I've done he has worked on the side for
Private projects, and I've got to tell you, this is as easy as they want to make it. It's as
Representative Karen S. Hopper
Unverified
13:04
And just what you said, I think it's a wonderful opportunity for us to showcase the expertise that we're teaching at our higher education institutions. There is
Representative Ed Garner
Unverified
13:12
some unbelievable computer talent out there that maybe the people in the office, the upstairs, don't
want. But there are some computer people in institutions of higher education in this state that are quite unbelievable.
Representative Karen S. Hopper
Unverified
13:25
You are exactly right, and we're very proud of them, and
Representative Jim Nickels
Unverified
13:36
I thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Representative Nichols. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I supported the other open checkbook bill, I guess, that Senator Dismang ran. I think I was also a co-sponsor. But I have one, and I'm supportive in general of this, but I have one concern that I hope it's not an unintended consequence of this.
Would you agree that the
Department of Higher Education sends checks to institutions of higher ed for the lottery scholarship?
Okay, you're going to have to go further. Okay. Would you also agree or do you know if
the Department of Higher Education sends lottery scholarship checks to Harding University?
Representative Ed Garner
Unverified
14:32
Representative Nichols, this is on expenditures from higher ed institutions. Well, what I'm
wondering. So are you asking, is the
Representative Jim Nickels
Unverified
14:42
Department of Higher Ed on the open checkbook? No, my problem is I just
want to make sure that we're not dragging in the private higher education institutions to this open checkbook because it says a state-supported institution of higher education, and I'm wondering if these lottery scholarships that we send to these private universities make them state-supported.
Representative Ed Garner
Unverified
15:05
No. Well, I'm not so sure. Well, Representative Nichols, this is on
expenditures, so when the institution of higher ed receives money, it won't be on this. This is a checkbook. This is about
Representative Jim Nickels
Unverified
15:18
what those institutions spend. And I'm in favor of that. I just don't want it to cover the private institutions that I'm sure you're not trying to cover. It doesn't. But that – I
Representative Ed Garner
Unverified
15:29
understand your question now. It doesn't. This is about expenditures of state higher
ed expenditures when they write a check.
Representative Jim Nickels
Unverified
15:37
Right, but you say a state-supported institution of higher education. I'm just concerned that some of these private institutions may be considered state-supported if they receive lottery scholarships. No. That's federal. So anyway, that could
be an issue. I mean, I'm for this, but I'm afraid that, you know, if you had some more clear language
in there, that would – I think it's very clear. Okay. Thank you.
Speaker 86
16:07
Any other questions for the committee? Has anyone in the audience like to speak against this bill? Father
Representative Ed Garner
Unverified
16:18
Bill, are you ready to close for you, Bill? I appreciate this committee, and I appreciate the
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
16:24
work done on open checkbook, and I'm closed, sir. Do we have a motion of the will of
Speaker 86
16:30
the committee, Representative Clemmer? We have a motion to do pass on House Bill 1017.
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
16:37
We had a misprinted for 1017. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? You passed your bill. Thank you. Now we're going to
Speaker 86
16:48
House Bill 2154, Representative Johnson and Representative Ingram. Mr. Chair. Yes, ma'am.
Representative Ann V. Clemmer
Unverified
16:57
I move to do pass. But my former state senator and current interim director of higher ed said I did not move to pass as amended.
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
17:08
Aye. We did not. We have a motion to pass as amended. All in favor say aye. Aye. Okay. We've passed it. Thank you. Anyone
Speaker 14
17:20
oppose that? No. Representative Ingram, you're ready to present your bill? Thank
Representative Keith M. Ingram
Unverified
17:25
you, Mr. Chairman, committee. Representative Clemmer, we thought that you were talking about our bill. We were ready
Speaker 4
17:32
for it to go ahead. I would turn it over to Representative Johnston. Representative Johnston.
Speaker 96
17:38
Thank you. Josh Johnston, District 59. This just, House Bill 2154, just clarifies some confusion in the terms of the election commissioners, the county board, and we'll take questions if you have any. He has an amendment. Okay. I have a minute. We got together. I forgot it. Okay.
Speaker 14
18:11
Representative Klammer? I'm going to make a motion at
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
18:17
the proper time. Okay. Any other questions from
Representative Jim Nickels
Unverified
18:22
the committee? Representative Nichols? Would you explain the bill a little bit more than House Bill 2154? for. I'm not sure what all you,
I notice you're striking out a lot and you're putting a lot in so I'd like a little bit
Speaker 96
18:36
more explanation of the bill. In the past there was some confusion on the terms the length of the terms
they were, you know, some were two and some were three year terms and this just cleans that up basically and makes things work a lot better for your county committees.
Representative Keith M. Ingram
Unverified
18:53
It basically puts it back to it was before it was changed in 07 on terms of office. This just goes back to the way it used to be for the county parties and the election commission where the commissioner served at will of
Representative Jim Nickels
Unverified
19:08
the party. This is not in conflict with what we just passed yesterday with Representative King's legislation on
Speaker 3
19:14
election commission? No, sir. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions from the committee? Representative
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
19:28
Clemmer? move do pass move do pass all in favor say aye oh sorry does anyone in the audience want to speak against this bill for the bill all in favor of the motion do pass say aye all opposed you've passed your bill Representative Johnson now we're going to House Bill 1928
Representative Baker Representative Baker You take the seat. You're about ready to explain your bill. This is House Bill 1928, members. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members
Representative Tommy Lee Baker
Unverified
20:08
of the committee. House Bill 1928. Do you have an amendment, Representative Baker?
The amendment is engrossed in the bill. it should
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
20:27
be with the clerks. If that's
Representative Tommy Lee Baker
Unverified
20:37
the case, please continue to explain your bill. House Bill 1928 deals with absentee voting and absentee voting irregularities. And when there's an irregularity, it puts the responsibility on the county clerk to identify and report
those irregularities. It demonstrates how the clerk is to handle them, and it doesn't put a whole lot of who should take care of the situation. It gives it to the clerk to report any irregularities to the prosecuting attorney. I'll answer questions. Is there any
Speaker 67
21:24
questions to the committee? Representative Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, sir.
Speaker 72
21:33
Good morning. It says on the back page 19 and 20, the county clerk shall not accept an absentee ballot from a designated bearer who does not sign the register under oath. And I'm looking in the rest of the bill where it talks about doing it under oath. I mean, I like what you're doing here. But what is the oath?
Is there on the form where they pick it up, or do they stand there and
Representative Tommy Lee Baker
Unverified
22:08
do it? The oath will be a written form which the Election Commission will designate for the county clerk to get signed by the voter. And when they sign that form, they mean that they're following all the rules of the absentee
Speaker 72
22:29
voting. MS. So it's already in code, I guess, somewhere else?
Representative Tommy Lee Baker
Unverified
22:35
MR. All of the code is already there. It's just who's responsible for it was not there. MS. Thank you very much. Representative Roebuck Thank
Representative Johnnie J. Roebuck
Unverified
22:54
you, Mr. Chair Representative Baker, what's the position of the county clerks? I don't know Is there someone
in the room that could tell us that, Mr. Chair?
Speaker 93
23:09
They will certainly have the opportunity to talk at the end of the presentation if they so desire Thank
Speaker 128
23:19
you Representative Klemmer thank you mr. chair good
Representative Ann V. Clemmer
Unverified
23:24
morning mr breaker thank you how are you this morning i'm good thank you i just happen to notice that these are two fine mississippi county folks bringing this bill county of my birth and life for first 34 first 34 years proud of it um but i wonder if you would
Tell us either the issue now or the issue in past years that made you want to
Representative Tommy Lee Baker
Unverified
23:50
bring this. Yes. In the past election, where we have normally had anywhere from 50 to 100 absentee ballots, we had nearly 500 absentee ballots in an election where 2,000 people voted. There was some knowledge that people were picking up the absentee ballot,
loading them and bringing them back in with the person never seeing that ballot. It was definitely some abuse, but nobody knew who should handle that abuse. I wonder, I
Representative Ann V. Clemmer
Unverified
24:26
thank you for bringing this. I was on election commission
the year you might remember. I will see if you remember. Were we not one of the few counties that elected a countywide office by write-in in a year that we had about 60% of one town submitted absentee ballots?
Representative Tommy Lee Baker
Unverified
24:51
That's right. That was in a runoff election, yes. And that was for a sheriff. You remember
Speaker 91
25:00
that year, too. Yes. I don't believe we
Representative Ann V. Clemmer
Unverified
25:03
knew each other then, but I'm glad you have the same
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
25:10
memory as I do. Move to pass at the appropriate time, Mr. Chair. Rep. Baker, have you heard, if I may, have you heard of incidents over in the East Arkansas elections where an absentee ballot, there's more absentee ballots
for a candidate than was for the during the election or the early voting total?
Representative Tommy Lee Baker
Unverified
25:29
I heard of that, but I know this firsthand. hand. So this is not hearsay. I actually witnessed this incident. So
Speaker 137
25:47
Representative Bernard. Representative Baker, you might have answered this, sir, and I just
Representative Tracy Pennartz
Unverified
25:52
didn't hear the response. I understand how a county clerk could know just based on his or her records that someone
had already might have been more than two absentee ballots in their possession, but how would they reasonably suspect that by their
records or is that just by looking at the person? And we
Representative Tommy Lee Baker
Unverified
26:21
have a visit with the Election Commission on this, and this will give the
clerk the opportunity to have that person sign that absentee ballot, and it goes on their card
that they have picked up ballot number one. And when they pick up ballot number two, it
Representative Tracy Pennartz
Unverified
26:44
will be there for the clerk to see. Well, I was referring to 26 through 28. That's how the county clerk would know.
How would they reasonably suspect this? I'm using your terms in your bill on
Representative Tommy Lee Baker
Unverified
27:04
line 26. 6, page 1. Okay. In the
bill, it might not designate that a county clerk say we thought it was happening,
but there was no way we can prove it. So the proof is going to be that they signed the ballot that they have picked up, an absentee for another person. The person has to sign the ballot and bring it in, and then there's another signature that indicates that all of the
Representative Tracy Pennartz
Unverified
27:35
processes have taken place. Well, so a person, and just I don't know much about election laws, so please excuse this question. Should a person, this bill disallows them already in law to have no more than two absentee
ballots in his or her possession, so actually a person who was trying to commit voter fraud might have two one
day, two the next, two the following day, two the
Representative Tommy Lee Baker
Unverified
28:05
next. Is that correct? Yes. And I think if you go to page two, line nine, the county clerk shall indicate beside the the designated bearer's name on the registrar that he or she obtained an absentee
Representative Tracy Pennartz
Unverified
28:20
ballot for a voter. Okay, so that would go back to line 26, which says reasonably suspects they're connected
to that portion of it. Is that
Representative Tommy Lee Baker
Unverified
28:30
right, Mr. Baker? That's correct. And there's also another note in there that
they will not give them more than two ballots when they have picked up more than two, and if there's an attempt,
then that is a reasonable suspicion. Suspicion. Okay. Thank you very much, sir. I
Representative Tracy Pennartz
Unverified
28:49
appreciate your responses. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Any other questions from the committee?
Speaker 86
28:59
Is there any one of the artists like to speak against this proposal for it? Representative Klemmer, do you have a question? I'm sorry I was
Representative Ann V. Clemmer
Unverified
29:10
ready to make a motion, but my colleague was speaking in my other ear. I'm ready to make a motion at the proper time. Okay. Representative
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
29:21
Baker, are you ready to close for your bill? I'm closed. Thank you. Representative Clemmer, you have a motion? Do pass. We have a motion do pass on House Bill 1928. All in favor, say aye.
All opposed, say no. Representative Baker, you've passed your bill. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, committee. We now have House Bill 2054, Representative Schlenker, and then we're going to House Bill 1039, Representative English, when Representative Schlenker gets through. But she has three bills she's going to run, and she has an amendment.
Is that right, Representative Schlenker? On this bill, on 2054, you have an amendment. Okay. We're passing out the amendment, members. This is 2054.
Speaker 137
30:33
Why don't you have her bring her book? Where's my
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
30:48
amendment? Representative Bernard? Motion due passed on the amendment. We have a motion due passed on the amendment. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say no. You passed your amendment.
Representative Mary L. Slinkard
Unverified
30:58
Representative Sminker, you're ready to present your bill. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and committee. I refer to this bill as the election calendar bill.
It takes the full election code and moves dates to a date certain. If there is a handout coming out that is the election calendar, with the chair's permission and committee, I would invite Martha Adcock or others to the desk to
help me explain this bill. Yes, ma'am. Would you state your name and what
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
31:29
organization you're with? Yes. My name is Martha Adcock, and I'm
Martha Adcock
Unverified
31:34
the Director of Elections at the Secretary of State's office.
And when Representative Slinkard brought this to our office, what we did was try and take all of the different changes on the dates, and we were putting it on a calendar so that then the committee could see what was happening. because the clerks and some of the county boards of election commissioners had expressed concern that there wasn't enough time, especially prior to the primary elections and then going into the general elections for them to get all of their work done. And so Representative Slinkard moved the dates back,
and what we have tried to do is put it on here on a calendar format so you could see when things were done. And because there were a couple of other bills, at least one other that passed out of the House, Don't know that it's passed out of the Senate yet, but having to do with other parties, we also put that on here, too, just so you would see that and you could kind of see where everything fit. So hopefully this would be a guide to you because the bill is lengthy because several deadlines were changed.
And there is also a county, the legislative chair of the County Clerks Association is up here in regards to if you have questions specifically for the county clerk, because that's why the bill, that's why Representative Slinker ran the bill,
Speaker 157
33:00
is to assist the county clerks and the county
Representative Mary L. Slinkard
Unverified
33:04
board of election commissioners. Are you, Representative Slinker, are you ready to continue or? Yes. As Ms. Edcock said, this bill will assist in the,
in lengthening the time that county boards of election commissioners and clerks and others have in which to prepare for the election. And as you note, this calendar actually starts in November for the nonpartisan judicial and others. It is a good bill. It does provide that time instead of saying by a certain date we've got 80 days or 81 days or 51 days or 100 days.
It does move those dates back in order to provide time for county boards and county clerks and others involved in that process to prepare for an election. And the other thing
Martha Adcock
Unverified
34:03
that it does is the Federal Move Act, which then moves some of the deadlines that we have to comply with for federal elections, this also includes those, because that bill was passed after this body left in 2009. And so we must comply with those, and those are also included in here, and that's why you see some of the changes, especially in regards to when ballots have to be prepared and available for your overseas voters.
And that's really to benefit your military folks and your overseas voters. Is
Speaker 67
34:40
there any, are you, Representative Schlenker, are you through with your presentation? Yes, I'll take questions. Representative
Representative Larry Cowling
Unverified
34:53
Cowley. Your reference in here to House Bill 1827, what did 1827, right off hand, can you tell me what it did?
Representative Mary L. Slinkard
Unverified
35:01
I believe that was the bill that passed the House regarding new political parties filing time. Okay. And they basically have to file the
Representative Larry Cowling
Unverified
35:12
same time as everybody else, right? That's my understanding. Yes, sir. Thank
Speaker 3
35:21
you. Any other questions from the committee? Mr.
Speaker 130
35:26
Klammer. Just an observation that I'm whispering about over here. The filing period beginning February 23rd, will
Representative Ann V. Clemmer
Unverified
35:34
we be in, I mean, for legislators,
will be in our fiscal session at that time? Just kind of throwing that out there, is there a problem with that? I'm asking the committee. I don't know of one, but I just kind of wanted to make that observation. We're already here. We don't have to drive
Representative Mary L. Slinkard
Unverified
35:59
to, okay. I don't know if that was directed to
Representative Ann V. Clemmer
Unverified
36:02
me or not. Just directed to anyone, I guess.
Representative Jim Nickels
Unverified
36:07
Regent Nichols. Yes, if you look on page 7, line 21, can you explain? This particular section has nothing to do
with changing time or days or anything, but delivering ballots to absentee voters as soon as practicable.
What's the current law on that, and is there room for mischief in that? Yes. Representative Nichols if you go back to the
Speaker 176
36:53
amendment that was one of the things that was changed via the amendment and
Martha Adcock
Unverified
36:58
so if you look at the amendment that was one of the things that we saw and it's at the bottom of the first page of the amendment you substitute practicable and shall no later than 46 days before the applicable election deliver ballots to those absentee voters who made timely
application under and then section 75406 and then referring to the federal law. And that's the requirement that you have in there. For the overseas voters who have made application ahead of time, federal law requires that that be mailed out that soon. And so, therefore, that's why this was specifically put in here. And so the other is practicable is going to be for if somebody else comes in, say, 30 days prior to an election, then the clerk still, with all due speed,
needs to be able to get out that absentee ballot. But the federal requirement of anybody who applies early, they must be mailed out on that 46th
Representative John W. Walker
Unverified
37:57
day. Okay. Thank you. Is there any other questions from the committee?
Speaker 86
38:06
Is there anyone in the audience like to speak against this proposal? Bart? Representative Slinker, are
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
38:15
you ready to close for your bill?
We're closed. Thank you. What's the will of the committee? Representative Bernard? Motion do pass. We have a motion do pass on House Bill as amended on House Bill 2054. Say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Say no. You passed your bill. Thank you, Representative Leonard. Now we're going to House Bill 2078. You have an amendment on that also? Yes, sir.
Speaker 146
38:49
Are we passing that out? We're passing that out now,
Speaker 100
38:52
members. This is about setting up the front of the voting system. That'd be fine. We have a motion to approve the amendment. Adopt the
Speaker 62
38:59
amendment. Yes, I apologize. Motion do pass as
Representative Tracy Pennartz
Unverified
39:03
amended on that bill. Well, that was other than we did that. We did that, okay. Yes, ma'am. We took care
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
39:14
of that one as amended. We're talking about we need a motion to adopt this amendment.
We have a motion to adopt the amendment. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Any opposed?
Speaker 3
39:25
Representative Schlenker, you're ready to present House Bill 2078. Thank you, Mr. Chair
Representative Mary L. Slinkard
Unverified
39:34
and committee. What this bill does is to set up a fund. Oh, excuse me. Should I talk about the amendment
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
39:45
first? Ma'am, you've already adopted the amendment, went in to discuss the bill as amended.
Representative Mary L. Slinkard
Unverified
39:51
As amended. Thank you. What this bill does is to set up a fund. This came to me from the Secretary of State's office and the Association of Arkansas Counties and county clerks that because it sets up a grant program to distribute funds through the state to counties to set up what's called the county voting system grant fund. This bill will set up those funds both in the state office as well as the county's offices.
The grants would go toward the counties to provide in case the counties have to buy more voting equipment or for maintenance, for software, for different things regarding the voting systems used in that county. As we know, the federal government or the Secretary of State no longer has any of the
HAVA money, which was the Help America Vote Act, and those funds have already been expended. The current law requires that the counties buy any future voting equipment, so this fund would be set up in order to provide those counties funds to purchase equipment for
maintenance and programming and things like that. Are you ready for questions?
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
41:30
Ready for questions. Does anyone in the committee have a question, Rep. Sir Clemmer?
Speaker 130
41:39
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think this sounds like
Representative Ann V. Clemmer
Unverified
41:42
a really good idea, $12 will be enough to do this? It seems like a
Representative Mary L. Slinkard
Unverified
41:50
pretty small amount, but is that – I mean, where did that number come from? With your permission, I need to introduce Mr. Jeff Sykes from the Association of Arkansas Counties.
Speaker 187
42:06
and who your organization is with for the record? Jeff Sykes with the Association of Arkansas Counties. Welcome. Thank you. Representative Klemmer, what this is is right now currently in the Secretary of State's office, almost all financing statements, which is under the Uniform Commercial Code, get filed any time there's a purchase made on credit. Those are now done, the vast majority, at the Secretary of State's office.
Back a few years ago, it was in every county. So whenever we went to this uniform, single-point system, The counties, through negotiating with the Secretary of State's office, were able to retain the benefit of the $12 per filing that went into these. That benefit is actually going to sunset in 2015. And in conversations with Secretary Martin, we lobbied him to see if we could retain the use of some of that money.
and he thought maybe this would be a good idea that we could spend it on election machines, service contracts, which are pretty steep with these Ibotronic machines, programming, some of the things especially for our rural counties that have problems funding. So this is actually revenue neutral to the state. It's just shifting that stream, and it makes perfect sense being as Secretary of State's chief election officer of the state. Thank you. I was just
Speaker 130
43:36
wondering where the dollar amount was arrived at.
Representative Linda S. Tyler
Unverified
43:39
Thanks. Representative Cower. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm not sure who should answer this,
but we collect $16 and we disperse $12. Where does the other
Speaker 187
44:00
four go? I would have to probably let the Secretary of State's office. I mean, I imagine it goes to their operations. I don't know, it may get swept into general revenues, operations.
Mr. Kelly is saying it goes into their operations. Do we know how much money that is? I don't know how much money the $4 is. The $12 raises, I think it raised last year about, it seemed like it was $766,000 statewide for, you
Speaker 192
44:33
know, all the statewide filing. I can do
Speaker 62
44:38
the math. All right, thank you, sir. Representative Hutchison.
Speaker 194
44:46
this so I can make sure I understand. They'll be collecting 16 and then they'll be turning 12. The Secretary of State will give 12 of it to the Treasurer and each county is supposed establish a county voting system grant fund how much will be sent to each county is it per person or how are they going to divide that up in the grant the
Speaker 190
45:18
secretary of state's office in conjunction with the
Speaker 187
45:21
Arkansas County clerks Association we're going to establish regulations on that actually do the appropriation in the fiscal session that's coming these because these dollars are dedicated for this fiscal year. Counties operate on a calendar year, fiscal year, so we wouldn't start until next year, and at that point, we're going to sit down with them and try to decide how that's best to be dispersed. There's been conversations on doing it evenly amongst the 75 counties. There's been conversations on maybe doing some sort of sliding
grant fund sort of similar to rural services the way they do for the smaller counties having less match that they had to put in in the bigger counties that had the bigger tax base having progressively larger matches. So that's not been established, but we've been in conversations with them, and
Speaker 193
46:15
we're excited about going forward. Well, I would greatly frown on equal amounts to all
Speaker 195
46:20
the counties. I hope that is dismissed quickly and do something with population or.
Speaker 187
46:27
And we have, when we met with the clerks, I mean, we had representatives from small counties there like Newton County where, you know, they're in tough times and they literally wait on their county turn back checks to make payroll. So it's, we certainly are
Speaker 194
46:45
cognizant of that. They don't need as many voting machines, though,
Speaker 187
46:49
do they, as highly populated? They don't, but those voting machines, I think, are $5,000, $6,000 a piece, so it's pretty tough.
Speaker 194
46:58
I'd feel better if I knew how the money was going to be distributed, but will there be input as they make their decision? I'm sure
Speaker 187
47:06
there will, Representative Hutchinson. I can't imagine that there wouldn't.
Speaker 193
47:12
Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank
Representative Tracy Pennartz
Unverified
47:16
you, Mr. Chair. We have Senator Bernard. Make this brief. So is there someone from the Secretary of State's office at the
Representative Tracy Pennartz
Unverified
47:26
this time. Okay, well, if my calculations are right, and I could be wrong, since lack of sleep does affect your brain,
this fee generates about a million dollars a year. And my question is, I'm still not clear, who pays the fee of $16? Just very briefly tell me, who pays it? MR. That would be the lender would pay those fees. So it
Speaker 187
47:56
would be the financing company if you buy a refrigerator from Sears or, yeah. MS.
Representative Tracy Pennartz
Unverified
48:05
I understand now. And I never really could get clear who
Representative Jim Nickels
Unverified
48:13
pays it. Thank you very much. Representative Nichols. Now, when you started off with your presentation, I thought I heard you say that something was
Speaker 190
48:22
scheduled to terminate on 2015, and what was that? Yes. This,
Speaker 187
48:27
the agreement that was worked out had a sunset clause. And I think, I want to say, Representative Nichols, we did this in 2001 when we, the clerks,
This would be the circuit clerks in conjunction with the Secretary of State's office to set up this centralized filing. I think that was 01. It might have been 99. The period that we set it out to was 2013, and in the last session they extended it two more years. So there's a
Representative Jim Nickels
Unverified
48:59
sunset on these dollars for 2015. Okay. From the dollars flowing back to the county, is that what you're referring to? but not necessarily eliminating the tax or the fee, I guess.
That's correct. That would be there no matter what. That's correct. You're just dividing it, making it permanent,
or that it will be the $12 now will go toward the election fund, I guess. Yes, sir. For each county. and from what Representative Hutchinson was asking and what is the formula for the county how much do they receive that's
Speaker 190
49:39
not been established as yet how is it now
Speaker 187
49:43
now it goes back to the counties and I'm not 100% on it but I think the way it flows back to the counties is in proportion to the actual statements that are attributed to that county Okay, so
Speaker 208
49:56
if I have a finances statement and I'm in Newton County, then that money flows back to
Speaker 197
50:02
Newton County. Okay. All right. Thank you. Any other questions,
Speaker 86
50:10
committee? Is anyone in the audience like to speak against this bill?
Anyone for it? Yes, ma'am. If you would, take the end of the seat and the seat at the end of the table and state your name
Speaker 209
50:30
and who you're with. I'm Susan Inman, and I'm Executive Director and President of the Arkansas County Election Commissions Association, and we are in support of
Speaker 90
50:40
this bill. That helps, apparently. We have a reference link. Are you ready to close your bill?
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
50:48
We're closed. Thank you. Thank you. What's the will of the committee? Representative Bernard? Motion due to pay as amended? All in favor say aye. Any opposed? You pass your bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, committee. We have six minutes left. You have one more bill? It has an amendment also. Are you going to try to run that, Representative Laker?
Is that 2181? It is. Yes, ma'am. You want to run that? I would. It
should be very, very quick. These non-controversial bills are lasting 25 minutes. The controversial ones are lasting four hours. So we have an amendment we're passing out. Do I have a motion to adopt the amendment? We have a motion to adopt the amendment. Representative Tyler. All in favor say aye.
And you oppose. You've passed your amendment. You're ready to discuss the
Representative Mary L. Slinkard
Unverified
51:57
bill as amended. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, committee. What this bill does is to provide in addition to, in the section of the election code, in addition to a written complaint of being forwarded from the county board, this is current law, county board to the county clerk, work, then it also provides what this bill does is to provide that that written complaint
of any election violation or irregularity be also sent to the Secretary of State. It would help to provide information that the Secretary of State and others could use and to enhance training or things of that nature so that in any future violations, all these complaints come in to the Secretary of State's Office
so that they could enhance
their training of election officials. Are
Speaker 156
53:03
you through with your explanation? I'm through. Are you ready for questions? I'm ready for
Speaker 193
53:11
questions. President Hutchison. So we're
Speaker 194
53:15
sending in allegations. We're not waiting to see if there was actually a mistake or a fraud committed. We're just sending in allegations?
Representative Mary L. Slinkard
Unverified
53:27
Yes. What the current law provides is that that be sent to the prosecuting attorney by the county clerk and then also deliver a copy of that to the Secretary of State so that they can just review these things to see if it needs to be any additional training out there.
But are names being given? I'm not aware.
Speaker 194
54:00
So did this and that without anyone knowing if it's true or not will be on record or I'm just concerned it's innocent to have proven guilty, so that's my concern. I
Representative Mary L. Slinkard
Unverified
54:14
understand this bill just provides, I mean, that's
already in the law about them providing that complaint to the prosecuting attorney and the county clerk. This bill just says that that also shall be sent to the Secretary of State just so that
the Secretary of State's office would have information about what kind of complaints are being done in order for them to enhance their training if need be. Could they,
Speaker 194
54:43
you amend it to say without names? I mean, the prosecuting attorney is supposed to see if this is true or not. I just hate to have records floating around with suggestions that people did something and years later, we don't know.
Representative Mary L. Slinkard
Unverified
55:02
I think it would depend upon how the County Board of Election Commissioners reported those
Speaker 86
55:15
complaints and irregularities. Ladies and gentlemen, we're running out
Representative Tracy Pennartz
Unverified
55:22
of time here. Representative Bernard. Representative Bernard. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Representative Slinkard, I would
be more comfortable with this if it is specifically stated.
I don't understand why the Secretary of State needs it in the first place, and as your bill stands now, I would vote against it because I don't see the need for that information being forwarded to the Secretary of State, especially unsubstantiated complaints. I can see a flurry of complaints done being sent to the Secretary of State. I'm opposed to this without some further delineation of for what purpose the Secretary of State shall use it. So I'm wondering if you would pull this back and try to clarify that for me because I'm
very uncomfortable with this at this current time. I'll take your suggestion. Ladies and gentlemen, members of
Speaker 3
56:15
this committee, we are out of time. We cannot, House Rose, be in two meetings during the House session. So she's
Representative Tracy Pennartz
Unverified
56:22
going to pull it back, Mr. Chair.
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
56:24
She said she'd take it on a suggestion. Are you pulling it back, or do you want to run it next week first? I may run it next week, but... Are you pulling it back, or are you going to just, we're going to turn and come back, and you're going to take it up at where we're at next week at a regular meeting?
I'll just pull it back Thank you Without a gesture We'll let Representative Slinker Pull this back for reconsideration We are going to see y'all next week
Agenda
Call to Order
HB1017
HB2154
HB1928
HB2054
HB2078
HB2181
Adjournment
Documents
No documents posted.
Speakers
Representative Clark Hall
Unverified
Speaker 4
Representative Ed Garner
Unverified
Speaker 9
Speaker 14
Speaker 16
Representative Johnnie J. Roebuck
Unverified
Speaker 31
Speaker 33
Representative Linda S. Tyler
Unverified
Speaker 53
Speaker 62
Representative Karen S. Hopper
Unverified
Speaker 15
Representative Jim Nickels
Unverified
Speaker 86
Representative Ann V. Clemmer
Unverified
Representative Keith M. Ingram
Unverified
Speaker 96
Speaker 100
Speaker 3
Representative Tommy Lee Baker
Unverified
Speaker 67
Speaker 72
Speaker 93
Speaker 128
Speaker 91
Speaker 137
Representative Tracy Pennartz
Unverified
Representative Mary L. Slinkard
Unverified
Martha Adcock
Unverified
Speaker 157
Representative Larry Cowling
Unverified
Speaker 130
Speaker 176
Representative John W. Walker
Unverified
Speaker 146
Speaker 18
Speaker 187
Speaker 192
Speaker 193
Speaker 194
Speaker 190
Speaker 195
Speaker 201
Speaker 208
Speaker 197
Speaker 209
Speaker 90
Speaker 156