Nevada Families Eagle Forum

186 Ryndon Unit 12, Elko, Nevada 89801, 775-397-6859, Sparks 775-356-0105

Janine Hansen www.nevadafamilies.org director@nevadafamilies.org

March 4, 2009 In the Year of Our Lord, 8:00pm

 Please forward to everyone you know!  Acknowledgement appreciated.

You can watch the Legislature live at: http://www.leg.state.nv.us/audio/AudioVideo.cfm

Find out who your Senator and Assemblyman is: www.leg.state.nv.us

 Update: AB82 Sec. of State’s Election Bill:

Jeopardizes Free Speech & Initiative Petitions, & Hurts Non-Incumbents &

Minor Parties

 

I’m sorry this is so long. It is a complicated and lengthy bill. When we arrived at the hearing yesterday afternoon we were handed an entirely new bill, 72 pages long, which was an increase over the original 43 page bill.  The new bill is not yet available on line. The same concerns we had with the original bill remain.  However, there are additional issues with the bill, but let me explain our original concerns more thoroughly. 

 

AB82 will place ballot initiative/petition campaigns under the far stricter and burdensome regulations and reporting requirements that are now required for Political Action Committees.  Basically, anytime reporting requirements increase it becomes harder and harder to raise money and to comply with the law especially by volunteers. During the Axe the Tax campaign, one businessman who donated to the campaign and was included in the report required by the SOS, lost all of his contracts with the casinos as they opposed the Axe the Tax petition.  This is how campaign/ballot committee contribution reporting silences initiatives campaigns.  As you can see, this will severely impact free speech and participation by the people in the political process.

In 2007, I successfully proposed an amendment to increase the contribution reporting amount for ballot campaigns from $100 to $1,000 to protect contributors. Currently, Ballot Initiative/Petition Campaigns only need to register with the Sec. of State and begin reporting after they receive $10,000 in contributions, whereas PAC’s must begin reporting at the first $100 contribution. Ballot Initiative/Petition Campaigns only need to report those by name who give $1,000 or more to the campaign instead of reporting every person who gives $100 or more. It’s not hard to see how important this $1,000 threshold for contributing is after witnessing how those favoring Proposition 8 on Marriage in California have been individually targeted by opponents for intimidation and persecution.  In the future, people will not give to Ballot Campaigns fearing they will be targeted. The opponents of Prop 8 published the addresses of contributors and provided maps to their homes and businesses. This type of law will so curtail free speech through fear and intimidation, that free speech will become a thing of the past. 

 New Issues: AB82 includes in Sections 1, 2, 3 & 4 requirements that the “organizer of a voter registration drive” to file with the Sec. of State and complete a training course.

 Sections 40 & 41 essentially require any two people who intend to make an expenditure, such as,   making a home made political sign, to register in advance with the SOS. Free Speech…what’s that?  Certainly, the Secretary of State has no idea! This section thankfully was opposed vigorously by the ACLU. 

 The bill also provides for electronic voter registration and exclusively for electronic campaign finance reporting.  This will exclude candidates who do not have computers or computer skills.  I thought they wanted more participation in the process!

 It makes violations of some election laws category C & E felonies. The jails aren’t full enough!

 AB82 moves the filing date for candidates from the first two weeks in May to the first two weeks in January. This will make if far more difficult for non-incumbents to gain timely support to determine whether or not to file for office. It thereby gives incumbents just one more significant advantage over non-incumbents and challengers.

 AB82 will be devastating for Minor Parties like the Independent American Party & Libertarians.   Minor Parties do not have primaries, they nominate their candidates at county and state conventions which must take place prior to candidate filing.  That would mean that county and state conventions would be taking place during Thanksgiving—Christmas and New Years.  Who is going to be able or willing to participate?  Who is even interested in politics during the Christmas Season?  The result will be far fewer candidates for Minor Parties and thus far less influence in the political process.

 We will be suggesting some amendments.  The committee had many concerns with the bill and I’m sure there will be significant changes in the bill. We will be watching it carefully.

 MESSAGE: Vote NO on AB82 protect free speech and participation in ballot campaigns.

And/or: Vote NO on AB82 Don’t make it harder to participate in the election process for non-incumbents and Minor Parties.

 CONTACT: Assembly Elections, Procedures, Ethics & Constitutional Amendments Committee:

Email addresses include first initial and last name of legislators. 

Chairman: ekoivisto@asm.state.nv.us , hmortenson@asm.state.nv.us , mconklin@asm.state.nv.us , whorne@asm.state.nv.us , rkihuen@asm.state.nv.us , hmunford@asm.state.nv.us , johrenschall@asm.state.nv.us , tsegerblom@asm.state.nv.us , dsmith@asm.state.nv.us , tcobb@asm.state.nv.us , hgansert@asm.state.nv.us , jhambrick@asm.state.nv.us , jsettelmeyer@asm.state.nv.us

Contact by Phone:   Northern Nevada 775-684-6789, Southern Nevada 702-486-2626,

Toll Free 800-978-2878 Toll free fax: 866-543-9941

 If you would like to receive our email alerts directly please send us you email address! Or ask to be removed from our list. Send to director@nevadafamilies.org with subscribe or remove in the subject line.

 [ Back To Alerts ]   [ Home ]