Election bills move forward

BOISE — Idaho senators moved forward a number of bills Friday related to elections.

The Senate State Affairs Committee voted to approve bills related to library trustee elections, campaign finance reporting and a potential statewide voter guide.

Sen. Scott Herndon, R-Sagle, presented two election bills Friday — one would require itemized reporting for campaign contributions under $50 and the other shortens the terms of elected library district trustees.

CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS

Herndon’s campaign contributions legislation, SB 1218, would implement the same standard for reporting contributions over $50. Previously, individual contributions didn’t need to be reported and disclosed individually, but candidates were expected to still track these donors and report the itemized donations if they made multiple donations that totaled more than $50.

Sen. Jim Guthrie, R-McCammon, also presented a bill that deals with campaign contributions, but from federal political action committees, or PACs.

SB 1251 would require these federal PACs to report donations to state campaigns to the the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office. Currently these organizations are only required to report to the Federal Election Commission.

Secretary of State Phil McGrane testified in favor of the bill, saying there have been instances of these PACs contributing to local elections, and these are harder to track because of differences with how the FEC tracks and collects spending.

“The FEC, their focus is federal elections, so they don’t really monitor or care that much about organizations who are playing in state activity,” McGrane said.

The committee unanimously approved the bill.

LIBRARY DISTRICTS

Also presented, SB 1235 would shorten local library district trustee terms to four years from six. Herndon said many other elected positions, such as for school boards or fire commissions, have four-year terms.

“This is all moving toward more local government and having more of a say in your local government,” Herndon said.

Sen. Treg Bernt, R-Meridian, asked why the legislation targets just library districts, and not others that have six-year terms, such as sewer districts.

Herndon highlighted that libraries had been at the center of some recent public disgruntlement over pandemic-related policies as well as what types of materials they make available. Opponents of recent legislation that aimed to restrict minors’ access to materials deemed “harmful” have said that the state should leave these decisions to the locally controlled library boards.

“We’ve seen more cultural questions around how libraries operate with voters,” Herndon said.

Sen. Ben Toews, R-Coeur d’Alene, made a motion to send SB 1235 to the Senate with a “do pass” recommendation. The bill nearly died for lack of a second, but Bernt opted to second the motion just before the chair declared the motion dead.

Bernt said he was unsure of how he’d vote on the legislation later.

“I just think that this maybe merits a more broad debate on the Senate floor,” he said.

All but Sen. Mark Harris, R-Soda Springs, voted to send it to the floor. There was no public testimony on the bill.

VOTER GUIDE

McGrane proposed another piece of legislation to create a voter guide that includes candidate information.

Currently the state provides a voter pamphlet that only includes information about ballot measures, such as initiatives or a proposed constitutional amendment.

If passed, the new guide would also include federal, state and county candidate information, as well as general voter information about requirements, important dates and county clerk contact information.

“I can tell you, your constituents, doesn’t matter what district you represent, are asking, ‘where is the candidate information?’ They want to know what they’re going to be voting on,” McGrane told committee members. “It’s the most common request we get at the Secretary of State’s Office and in all the county clerk offices, just overwhelmingly.”

McGrane had proposed a similar bill last year, which the Senate passed, but it died without a hearing in the House State Affairs Committee.

The new proposal does not require more funding for the November general election, he said, because of negotiations with the printer, the cost would be the same as for the existing voter pamphlet, which is $350,000.

Under the new bill, though, this appropriation would become annual instead of every two years.

As with the pamphlet, the voter guide would be printed and distributed to more than 800,000 homes.

Candidates would submit their own information, with some guidelines, but McGrane said his office would not be censoring people’s submitted statements.

“We don’t want to filter anybody,” he said.

The committee voted to introduce the bill so it may come back for a public hearing.

Guido covers Idaho politics for the Lewiston Tribune, Moscow-Pullman Daily News and Idaho Press of Nampa. She may be contacted at lguido@idahopress.com and can be found on X @EyeOnBoiseGuido.