Election measure narrowed, advanced
Senators narrowed the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee’s annual election cleanup bill before advancing the measure to the final round of debate May 8.
LB521, as introduced by Bellevue Sen. Rita Sanders, contains recommended updates to the Nebraska Election Act as suggested by the secretary of state’s office. Among other provisions, the bill would provide specify the form and contents for petitions for partisan and nonpartisan candidates for President of the United States and other elective offices, as well as petitions for the establishment of a new political party.
The measure was amended on the first round of debate to include provisions of four additional election proposals:
• LB19, sponsored by Sen. John Cavanaugh of Omaha, which would allow primary and metropolitan class cities to change the timing of city elections;
• LB238, introduced by Omaha Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, which would exempt local foster care review boards from Open Meetings Act requirements;
• LB243, sponsored by Sanders, which would make technical changes; and
• LB659, sponsored by Sen. Bob Andersen of Omaha, which would require an election commissioner or county clerk using a vote counting device to conduct at least three independent tests before counting begins.
Lincoln Sen. Carolyn Bosn offered an amendment on select file to strike the provisions of Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh’s LB238 from the proposal. She said local foster care review boards already are able to exempt themselves from the Open Meetings Act when discussing confidential information related to specific youth and families by going into executive session.
Bosn said she was concerned about a loss of transparency if the board is exempt from the act when not discussing that type of information.
Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln agreed. Speaking in support of the amendment, she expressed concern that the original proposal would “chip away” at government transparency. Any public body can enter executive session to discuss personnel or other sensitive information, she said, which is a better option than granting an entity a blanket exemption.
The amendment was adopted 31-0.
An amendment offered by Sanders and adopted 43-0 removed a provision that would prohibit petition circulation within 200 feet of a secure ballot drop-box and replaced it with a technical provision related to filling city council vacancies in metropolitan class cities. Omaha currently is the state’s only metropolitan class city.
Sanders noted concerns raised by Conrad on the previous round of debate that ballot drop-boxes are not always placed in the same location, which could lead to a “gotcha moment” for petition circulators who did not know that they were violating the law.
Lincoln Sen. George Dungan offered an amendment to remove Lincoln — the state’s only primary class city — from the provisions of Sen. John Cavanaugh’s LB19.
Those provisions would allow Lincoln and Omaha to amend their charters in order to align city elections with statewide primary and general elections. Currently, both hold their city elections in the spring of the year following statewide elections and those dates are set in state law.
Dungan said Lincoln officials had concerns with the provisions, given that the city’s municipal elections also include races for the Lincoln Airport Authority and the Lincoln Public Schools Board of Education, which are not contemplated in the bill.
Cavanaugh supported the amendment, saying it would not undermine the intent of his proposal, which originally included only Omaha.
Sen. Beau Ballard of Lincoln opposed the amendment. Lincoln’s recently concluded off-year election had 24% voter turnout, he said, and the city should have the option to amend its charter to align with statewide elections to increase participation.
The Dungan amendment failed on a vote of 16-30. After a successful motion to reconsider that vote, lawmakers again rejected the amendment 18-26. Twenty-five votes were needed.
LB521 then was advanced to final reading by voice vote.
