AMENDMENTS TO ELECTION LAW

Senate Bill 513 as passed by the Senate

Sponsor:  Sen. Bev Hammerstrom

House Committee:  House Oversight, Elections, and Ethics

Senate Committee:  Government Operations

Complete to 6-7-05

A SUMMARY OF SENATE BILL 513 AS PASSED BY THE SENATE 6-1-05

The bill would amend the Michigan Election Law to do the following:

• allow a school district to change its regular election date to various elections other than the odd-year general election, including the general November election, the November regular election in both odd and even years, and the odd-year May regular election.

• require certain information to appear on a petition for a school district to borrow money, increase a millage, or establish a bond; this information would include the proposed date of the special election, the amount of the millage increase or the bond or loan, and the purpose for the millage increase or bond or loan.

• designate that the election commission would be responsible for establishing a school district's precincts and polling places if the county clerk was the school district election coordinator.

• establish procedures for a school board to obtain a temporary change in the terms of office of board members when a ballot question was proposed to change the number of board members or their terms of office; a ballot question could not be submitted to the school district election coordinator until a proposed transition plan for terms of office was approved the secretary of state.

• require the first published notice of a ballot proposal to include a caption or brief description of the proposal, and require the same for the second published notice if the election includes a statewide ballot proposal; also, if the election pertains to a special election to vote on a proposal or includes a local ballot proposal, the entire proposal as it will appear on the ballot would have to be included in the second notice.

• provide for a county clerk, rather than the governor, to call a special election to fill a vacancy in a township office if a township board or board of county election commissioners have not filled the vacancy; the township party committee for each political party would submit a nominee, and the special election would be held on the next regular election date not less than 60 days after the deadline for submitting nominees (or not less than 70 days if the next regular election is the even-year August primary or the general November election).

• increase the minimum time between the filing of a recall petition and the recall election from 70 to 95 days.

• set a deadline for the filing of nominating petitions and withdrawal notices for village offices when a village holds its regular election at the September primary election; nominating petitions would be due with the village clerk by 4 p.m. on the 12^th Tuesday before the September primary, and a candidate could not withdraw after 4 p.m. of the third day after the last day for filing a nominating petition.

• expand the offices listed in the nonpartisan section of a ballot to specifically refer to city officers, local school district board members, community college board of trustee members, intermediate school board members, and district library board members.

MCL 168.301 et al

FISCAL IMPACT:

The bill would have an indeterminate impact on local units of government.

                                                                                           Legislative Analyst:   J. Hunault     

■ This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan House staff for use by House members in their deliberations, and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.