[Vision2020] Vote-By-Mail Measure Dies in Committee

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (March 27, 2007) Spokesman Review -

"Chairman pulls bill back for new hearing, then doesn't hold one"

As Charlie Rich said, "No-one knows what goes on behind closed doors."

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Vote-by-mail measure dies in committee 
Chairman pulls bill back for new hearing, then doesn't hold one

Betsy Z. Russell 
Staff writer
March 27, 2007

BOISE - Vote-by-mail legislation that was backed by every county clerk in
the state is dead for the year, one of an array of high-profile bills
unilaterally killed by legislative committee chairmen.

"It's not going anywhere this year," said Rep. Tom Loertscher, R-Iona,
chairman of the House State Affairs Committee. "I've got a lot of concerns
about it, and I think legitimate concerns."

House Bill 94 came out of the House State Affairs Committee on an 11-7 vote
in mid-February, and backers were ebullient.

"We were doing really well with our vote count on the floor - that's when
they pulled it back into committee," said Kerry Ellen Elliott, lobbyist for
the Idaho Association of Counties. "We got the message - we won the battle,
but we lost the war."

Loertscher told the House on Feb. 16 that a problem had arisen that needed
another look in his committee, and the House backed him on a 53-16 vote.
Loertscher said then that he expected to hold another hearing on the bill,
but he never did.

Committee chairmen have that prerogative - they can decide which bills to
place on their committee's agenda. They can even take a bill that's already
passed the other house handily, stash it in a desk drawer and let it die
there.

Among bills that have died that way this year are Sen. Joyce Broadsword's
measure to eliminate exemptions from the state's child car seat law; Sen.
Lee Heinrich's bill to raise the fine for seat belt violations; and Sen.
Clint Stennett's bill to eliminate the current rule that only those who have
their primary home within a mile can testify at a hearing on a proposed
large feedlot.

House Transportation Chairwoman JoAn Wood, R-Rigby, sidelined both the car
seat and seat belt bills; and House Local Government Chairwoman Lenore
Barrett, R-Challis, declined to schedule a hearing on Stennett's feedlot
testimony bill.

"It's disappointing," said Broadsword, R-Sagle, who had warned lawmakers
that if exemptions aren't removed, Idaho babies and toddlers risk becoming
"ping-pong balls" inside a crashing car. "When you put your most vulnerable
population at risk, that's just not responsible," she said.

Broadsword said eliminating the exemptions, which waive the law if there
aren't enough seat belts or if parents want to remove the child to feed or
change a diaper, would qualify the state for nearly $1 million in federal
grants that would in part pay for car seats for low-income Idaho families. 

Heinrich, R-Cascade, said his bill to raise seat belt fines could help boost
Idaho's seat belt compliance, which is up to 78 percent, but needs to hit 85
percent to qualify the state for $4 million to $5 million in additional
federal highway funding.

"I think it's unfortunate. Legislation should be by the will of the people,
not by the individual," Heinrich said.

Loertscher said he thought there were problems with the way the vote-by-mail
bill was written. "There may be a constitutional problem, on the right to
absolute secrecy of the ballot," he said. 

With mail-in voting, he said, "There are gaps when it's out of control by
the voter or the county clerk."

The eastern Idaho lawmaker said there were other problems with the bill as
well, but he couldn't remember what they were. "It was two months ago - boy,
you're asking me to remember," he said.

Kootenai County Clerk Dan English said there was no constitutional problem
with mail-in voting.

"I think it was asked and answered early on," he said. If there were such a
problem, he said, Idaho wouldn't be doing absentee voting by mail-in ballot,
and states such as Oregon and Washington wouldn't have instituted
vote-by-mail.

In the last general election, 25 percent of Kootenai County's ballots were
cast as absentee ballots, most of those in the mail, English said.

"I guess if there were other concerns, we never had a chance to address
them," English said. 

"It certainly seems to have a lot of popularity with the average voters. .
It's disappointing."

Loertscher said personally, he doesn't like vote-by-mail. "Voting is a right
and a responsibility," he said. "The easier it becomes, the less important
it becomes to us. . It starts to mean less."

Elliott said, "It'll come up another day. I think the people want
vote-by-mail. . They'd have more time to look at the ballot, examine the
issues. People have schedules that are insane now. It's coming."

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Bills killed unilaterally 
Legislative committee chairmen can kill bills by declining to schedule them
for hearings in their committees. Here are some that have died that way this
session:

.HB 94, to allow counties to conduct elections by mail. Passed the House
State Affairs Committee 11-7, but was pulled back to committee by the
chairman for another hearing, which he then declined to hold.

.SB 1094, to eliminate exceptions to the requirement to restrain young
children in car seats while traveling. Passed the Senate 29-4; died in House
Transportation Committee without a hearing.

.SB 1135, to raise the fine for not wearing a seat belt from $10 to $25.
Passed the Senate 22-12; died in House Transportation Committee without a
hearing.

.SB 1056, to allow people to testify at confined animal feeding operation
hearings even if they don't live within a mile of the project. Passed the
Senate 30-4; died in House Local Government Committee without a hearing.

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Seeya at the polls, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"If not us, who?
If not now, when?"

- Unknown