by Sen. Steve Fitzgerald, R-Fifth Dist.
Senate passes bill affecting party switches
The Kansas Senate approved a bill Wednesday March 12 that would prohibit voters from changing parties on or after the candidate filing deadline, which this year is June 1.
That prohibition would be in effect until the results of a primary election were certified.
It wouldn’t apply to new voter registrations, those who reregister after a move, or those choosing a party when previously unaffiliated.
Current law allows voters to change parties up to 20 days prior to the August primary.
The House approved the bill, HB 2210, last year. Senate approval sends the bill to the governor, who is expected to sign it into law.
Political parties in Kansas worried for many years that a lot of voters of an opposite party have switched their registration prior to an August primary election in an effort to influence the outcome.
To counter the tactic, the Kansas House approved a bill last year prohibiting voters from changing parties on or after the candidate filing deadline, which is June 1 of this year.
Rep. Keith Esau, an Olathe Republican, said he has three basic reasons for authoring the bill.
“The primary reason is to protect all political parties from undue influence from outside their party,” he stated in prepared remarks for the Senate committee. “It appears that the motivation for people who temporarily change party registration is to affect the outcome of the opposition party in order that the candidate selected has less chance to win in the general election. In other words, they want the worst candidate of the other party to win the primary.”
He added that the workload of election offices would be reduced during the busiest time of the election cycle since primary election ballots are the most complex that an election office must deal with.
Esau said a change in the law would also allow more efficient election analysis.
Under the current system, he said it was to find out which party ballot someone voted in the primary election.
“The election office records every person that votes in a primary, but that information is not recorded until the weeks after the primary happens and usually as part of the certification procedure,” he said. “In the meantime, people can currently change their party registration, thus making it look as if they voted a different ballot than they actually voted.”
Bill would add cellphones to No-Call list
In 2002, the Legislature enacted the Kansas No-Call Act but it only pertained to land-line phones and not cellphones.
Senate Bill 308, however, would add cellphones to the act and allow the Office of the Attorney General to enforce the Kansas law against telemarketers who call a consumer’s listed cellphone number in violation of the law.
The Senate approved the bill on Feb. 20 on a 38-0 vote.
Constitutional measure would allow raffles
The Kansas Senate has approved a constitutional amendment allowing many churches and charities to legally hold raffles.
While these groups routinely do so under current law, the practice is actually illegal.
The constitutional measure would simply install a legal process and allow the legislature to authorize licensing, conduct and regulation of any charitable raffles by a nonprofit, religious, charitable, fraternal, education and veteran’s organizations.
The constitutional amendment would include a number of limitations that would assist in any loopholes of organizations not wanting to raise money for a charitable cause.
The restrictions for organizations include: A ban on electronic gaming or vending machines to sell raffle tickets; hiring a professional raffle or other lottery vender to manage the raffle; and, licensing and regulation by the Office of Charitable Gaming within the Kansas Department of Revenue.
Raffles would be defined as a game of chance in which each participant buys a ticket from a nonprofit organization, and each ticket would provide an equal chance to win a prize.
Currently, the Constitution requires all forms of gambling to be regulated by the Kansas Lottery. Sub for SCR 1618 passed with a vote of 35-0.
Since the measure is a constitutional amendment, and passed the Senate by the required two-thirds majority, it will now head to the House where it will need the same majority.
If successful, the constitutional amendment would be put on the November election ballot.
Lawmakers respond to education ruling
In the week since the release of the Gannon decision, the House, Senate, and governor have continued to meet and discuss the best way to fulfill both the letter and the spirit of the ruling.
The decision is truly an opportunity to address school finance and continue to provide the best possible educational opportunities for Kansas children.
In the House, the Appropriations Committee will take up the issue this week, and have a plan to address the equity portion of the ruling within the last two weeks before first adjournment on April 5.
After that, the legislature has more time to focus on student outcomes, one of the most important pieces of the ruling. Education is a top priority for House Republicans.
School funding dissected
In the recent Kansas Supreme Court ruling on public school funding, the court specified that all funding sources be considered when looking at whether schools were being funded adequately.
Some education advocates only point to one source — basic state aid per pupil or BSAPP.
Other major funding sources: The cost of teacher’s retirement plan known as KPERS, capital outlay spending, local option budget (local property taxes), and even federal funding. To demonstrate the significance of this ruling, see the graph below.
