Bill Text: IA SF2346 | 2017-2018 | 87th General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: A bill for an act relating to the ballot arrangement for certain partisan offices. (Formerly SSB 3191.)

Spectrum: Committee Bill

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2018-03-12 - Subcommittee Meeting: 8:30AM House Lounge. [SF2346 Detail]

Download: Iowa-2017-SF2346-Introduced.html

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Senate File 2346 - Introduced




                                 SENATE FILE       
                                 BY  COMMITTEE ON STATE
                                     GOVERNMENT

                                 (SUCCESSOR TO SSB
                                     3191)

                                      A BILL FOR

  1 An Act relating to the conduct of election activities,
  2    including the sending of certain electronic messages, ballot
  3    arrangement for certain partisan offices, and imposing
  4    penalties.
  5 BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:
    TLSB 5868SV (1) 87
    ss/jh

PAG LIN



  1  1                           DIVISION I
  1  2                       ELECTRONIC MESSAGES
  1  3    Section 1.  NEW SECTION.  39A.5A  Certain electronic messages
  1  4 prohibited.
  1  5    1.  For the purposes of this section:
  1  6    a.  "Text or media message" means a message that contains
  1  7 written, audio, video, or photographic content and is sent
  1  8 electronically to a cellular telephone or mobile electronic
  1  9 device telephone number, but does not include electronic mail
  1 10 sent to an electronic mail address.
  1 11    b.  "Unsolicited political advertisement" means a text
  1 12 or media message sent without the prior permission of the
  1 13 recipient that includes express advocacy as defined in section
  1 14 68A.102.
  1 15    2.  A person shall not send or cause to be sent to a resident
  1 16 of this state an unsolicited political advertisement.
  1 17    3.  A person shall not send or cause to be sent to a
  1 18 resident of this state a text or media message containing an
  1 19 unsolicited political advertisement without first receiving
  1 20 prior permission from the intended recipient which permission
  1 21 includes the telephone number to which the text or media
  1 22 message may be sent. The permission shall be revocable at any
  1 23 time by submission of a request that includes the telephone
  1 24 number for which permission is being revoked.
  1 25    4.  A person who violates this section shall be subject to
  1 26 a civil penalty of fifty dollars for each telephone number to
  1 27 which an unsolicited political advertisement is sent, up to a
  1 28 maximum of five thousand dollars. Any penalties collected by
  1 29 the secretary of state shall be forwarded to the treasurer of
  1 30 state and deposited in the general fund of the state.
  1 31                           DIVISION II
  1 32                   BALLOT ORDER OF CANDIDATES
  1 33    Sec. 2.  Section 49.31, subsection 1, Code 2018, is amended
  1 34 to read as follows:
  1 35    1.  a.  All ballots shall be arranged with the names of
  2  1 candidates for each office listed below the office title.
  2  2 For partisan elections the name of the political party or
  2  3 organization which nominated each candidate shall be listed
  2  4 after or below each candidate's name.
  2  5    b.  (1)  The commissioner shall determine the order of
  2  6 political parties and nonparty political organizations
  2  7  candidates on the ballot as provided in paragraph "b". The
  2  8 sequence order shall be the same for each office on the
  2  9 ballot and for each precinct in the county voting in the
  2 10 election.  The commissioner shall arrange the ballot so that
  2 11 the candidates of each political party, as defined in section
  2 12 43.2, for each partisan office appearing on the ballot shall
  2 13 appear in descending order so that the candidates of the
  2 14 political party whose registered voters voted in the greatest
  2 15 number in the commissioner's county at the preceding election
  2 16 described in section 39.9 shall appear first on the ballot, and
  2 17 the candidates of the political party whose registered voters
  2 18 voted in the next greatest number in the commissioner's county
  2 19 at such election appear next on the ballot, and continuing in
  2 20 descending order in the same manner.
  2 21    (2)  The commissioner shall determine the number of
  2 22 registered voters from each political party who voted at each
  2 23 election described in section 39.9 after the state registrar
  2 24 has updated information on participation pursuant to section
  2 25 48A.38, subsection 2, following such an election.
  2 26    (3)  If the number of registered voters from two or more
  2 27 political parties voted in the same number in the county, the
  2 28 commissioner shall determine the order of arranging political
  2 29 party candidates for those political parties based upon the
  2 30 numbers of registered voters who voted in the most recent
  2 31 election described in section 39.9, for which the number of
  2 32 registered voters from those political parties who voted in
  2 33 such an election, were different.
  2 34    c.  The commissioner shall determine the order of candidates
  2 35 of nonparty political organizations on the ballot. The order
  3  1 shall be the same for each office on the ballot and for each
  3  2 precinct in the county voting in the election.
  3  3    Sec. 3.  Section 49.31, subsection 2, paragraph b, Code 2018,
  3  4 is amended to read as follows:
  3  5    b.  The Notwithstanding any provision of subsection 1,
  3  6 paragraph "b", to the contrary, the commissioner shall then
  3  7 arrange the surnames of each political party's candidates for
  3  8 each office to which two or more persons are to be elected at
  3  9 large alphabetically for the respective offices for the first
  3 10 precinct on the list; thereafter, for each political party and
  3 11 for each succeeding precinct, the names appearing first for
  3 12 the respective offices in the last preceding precinct shall
  3 13 be placed last, so that the names that were second before the
  3 14 change shall be first after the change. The commissioner may
  3 15 also rotate the names of candidates of a political party in the
  3 16 reverse order of that provided in this subsection or alternate
  3 17 the rotation so that the candidates of different parties shall
  3 18 not be paired as they proceed through the rotation. The
  3 19 procedure for arrangement of names on ballots provided in this
  3 20 section shall likewise be substantially followed in elections
  3 21 in political subdivisions of less than a county.
  3 22                           EXPLANATION
  3 23 The inclusion of this explanation does not constitute agreement with
  3 24 the explanation's substance by the members of the general assembly.
  3 25    This bill relates to the administration and conduct of
  3 26 election activities.
  3 27    Division I of the bill prohibits persons from sending
  3 28 unsolicited political advertisements using text or multimedia
  3 29 messages to mobile electronic devices. The bill requires any
  3 30 person sending an unsolicited political advertisement to first
  3 31 receive permission from the intended recipient. Any person who
  3 32 sends unsolicited political advertisements without receiving
  3 33 permission is liable for a civil penalty of $50 for each
  3 34 telephone number contacted without first receiving permission,
  3 35 up to a total of $5,000.
  4  1 Division II of the bill relates to the arrangement of
  4  2 election ballots for certain partisan offices. Under the bill,
  4  3 a county commissioner of elections is required to arrange
  4  4 the ballot so that the candidates of each political party
  4  5 for most partisan offices appearing on the ballot appear in
  4  6 descending order so that the candidates of the political party
  4  7 whose registered voters voted in the greatest number in the
  4  8 commissioner's county at the preceding gubernatorial election
  4  9 appear first on the ballot, and the candidates of the political
  4 10 party whose registered voters voted in the next greatest number
  4 11 in the commissioner's county at such an election appear next
  4 12 on the ballot, and continuing in descending order in the same
  4 13 manner.
       LSB 5868SV (1) 87
       ss/jh