Sine Die - Top 7 Election Bills in 2024
The 2024 legislative session is basically over. How did election integrity fair? Plus updates from Idaho, Illinois and around the US.
Perhaps a racetrack is not an apt image to depict the 2024 legislative session here in Idaho, but I thought an empty racetrack somehow seemed appropriate. While the pace of pushing hundreds of bills through the legislative process in a matter of 90 or so days can seem rushed, there is nevertheless a tortoise-like feel to it. And from my limited experience, it is the tortoise, like in the fable, that also wins the legislative race in the long run and not the hare. Very few bills with sweeping changes to our state statutes get very far, but incremental bills can.
That said, let’s recap what happened in the 2024 session on the elections front. There are seven bills I tracked that could have had a positive impact on election integrity and to add some drama, let’s rank them and tackle them in reverse order.
#7) HB470 - Election Crime Unit (Rep Alfieri) - Failed in House 34-36
This bill would have established an election crime unit under the Attorney General’s office that would investigate possible election crimes. For example, Rep Alfieri mentioned a person who went to vote at the polls and was told he already voted. What recourse does that person have? This bill would have an entity outside of the Clerks and Secretary of State purview to look into it.
The bill was defeated in the House with Rep Raybould providing the lone testimony against. She argued that there is no reason to setup a separate office to do this when this already falls under the duties of the Secretary of State and there is no evidence showing that structure is not working.
I do think this was an ambitious bill, but I think it would have helped provide some comfort to the citizens that are very concerned about the integrity of our elections.
#6) SB1394 Voting Systems (Sen Bernt) - LAW
This bill did two things. First, it would explicitly make it illegal for tabulation machines to be on the internet. While election officials have repeatedly made this claim, it technically is not illegal for them to be so.
The second part of the bill gives the Secretary of State the authority to access voting machines, with the approval of the county clerk (the latter part was added from the original version).
Overall, I think this bill is a win, but I am concerned about the ambiguity in our statutes - do county clerks have the authority to access their own machines? We have seen lawsuits in Michigan, Georgia and Colorado spawned by political differences between the Secretary of State and a County Clerk.
#5) HB561 Canvass Report (Rep Lambert) - LAW
This bill standardizes the reporting necessary by the county when certifying an election. While I know more was initially sought within the canvass report, the passed version did add requirements to provide undervote and overvote information with each race, which is very helpful.
#4) HJR5 Non-Citizen Voting Prohibited (Rep Andrus) - ADOPTED
While my read of the state constitution seems to say this already, this amendment would clarify the language to more explicitly state that non-citizens cannot vote in any election in Idaho. This bill, because it will become an amendment to the State constitution, required 2/3rds vote in both houses. While it was adopted, it will not amend the constitution unless it receives a majority of votes in November.
#3) HJR4 Prohibit Ranked Choice Voting (Rep Barbieri) - Failed 42-27-1
Technically, this bill would require ‘plurality voting’ which is the method we use now in Idaho to determine the winner. Structured this way, it would not only ban RCV but all of its derivatives or any other voting schemes in the future. HB179 from last session did ban RCV, however, the open primary initiative could undo that legislation if it gets a majority vote in November. Had HJR4 passed, it would have amended the constitution and made the RCV provisions in that initiative moot.
Despite the fact that HB179 attained 2/3rds vote in both houses last session, several legislators changed their vote and killed this bill. This was the vote on HJR4 - those in red voted against the bill:
#2) HB667 - Absentee Balloting (Rep Kingsley) - Died in General Orders
Absentee voting enables fraud. Whether it is happening here in Idaho or not is moot. It has been used to change election results in other states in documented court cases including several this past year (Connecticut, Louisiana, California). This bill would have done two things:
Prohibit 3rd parties from sending absentee applications and thus encouraging people to vote absentee and make our elections less secure.
Require an absentee voter to provide a reason for voting absentee (which is the way it used to be in Idaho and every other state).
While the bill passed committee, the debate from detractors claiming it could make felons of people who mistakenly voted absentee, prevented it from being sent to the house floor with a ‘do pass’ recommendation. It went instead to ‘general orders’ to be amended. That never occurred and the bill died without a vote in the house.
#1) HB599 - Ballot Harvesting (Speaker Moyle et al) - LAW?
This bill makes ballot harvesting illegal in Idaho, defining it as a misdemeanor if less than 10 ballots and a felony if 10 or more. It was passed on partisan lines in both houses with the main argument against making a valid case that a family friend or neighbor who does a favor by dropping off an absentee ballot on behalf of another could be found guilty of a misdemeanor. However, the good of the bill far outweighs any bad from such a situation.
The bill was a collaborative effort between the Speaker and the Secretary of State. It is not technically law as the Governor has yet to sign as of this writing.
While I would have liked to see HB667 or HJR4 pass and those would have been #1, I pushed this bill ahead of them because it appears likely to become law.
All of the above are, or would have been, a step forward to securing our elections. There were other bills that will be or could have been a step backward. These are:
SB1244 - Electioneering - LAW: you now have to be 250 feet from a polling place to post campaign signs or to try and influence people’s vote.
SB1273 - Voter Guide - this passed the Senate but died in House State Affairs without a vote. While I have mixed feelings and do see good in a voter guide, I would like to see restrictions on it being used as an advertisement to get people to register.
SB1371 and SB1415 - Presidential Primary: both of these passed the Senate and died in House State Affairs. Both attempted to restore the Presidential Primary to the same day as the regular primary. The former set a date in April and the latter would set it to May. While polling has shown voters would prefer for both primaries to take place on the same day, there is no good solution. A late Presidential Primary means the election is likely to be influenced by Idaho (and will generate less revenue) while an early Regular Primary means legislative elections can interfere with the legislative session.
US: Lawfare Update - I have covered this topic before but it is on-going and probably worthy of a separate substack. While I was gathering stories about various lawfare matters, I got this article from Sidney Powell’s blog that did such a great job covering so many of them, I thought I would just link to it. A few that were not covered in that article include Peter Bernegger, a Wisconsin based election researcher who was recently arrested for ‘simulating legal process’. And Jeff Clark, a Trump attorney charged in the Georgia case and who is also undergoing a trial to have his law license removed (a la John Eastman who is covered in the article link above). Finally, the continued use of gag orders on Trump that hamstring his campaign efforts as well as violate his first amendment rights.
US: Bill Barr Issued ‘Stand Down’ Order Over 2020 Election Irregularities - The story has been around since retired Lt Colonel Tony Shaffer discussed it on social media in the wake of the 2020 election. This week, however, testimony under oath by Harry Haury supports Shaffer’s claims that then Attorney General Bill Barr told him to ‘stand down’ on efforts to pursue possible election fraud. Haury said the order came via speaker phone and six other individuals heard it as well. Barr allegedly gave the same order to then US Attorney Bill McSwain, who had also gone on record about the matter. AG Barr has subsequently been one of the go-to arguments against any election fraud in 2020 because of his insistence that there was none. I have yet to see any statement from Barr that explains this ‘stand down’ order.
US: Biden Executive Order Injects Government into GOTV Efforts - Executive Order #14019 is disguised as an effort to inform the public of their right to vote and encourage voter registration, but the reality shows it to be a left leaning get out the vote effort using federal funds. Most notable is the Department of Education’s task to improve registration on college campuses, a demographic that votes significantly more for Democrats than Republicans.
US: New RNC Increases Election Integrity Focus, But Is It Enough? - The new chair of the Republican National Committee cited 80 election lawsuits, including a recent win in Pennsylvania which will force the rejection of mail-in ballots with no dates. But on a call this past week, Christina Norton of the RNC was peppered with chat questions as she presented the RNC plan for securing the 2024 election.
IL: Dem Primary Flips With Late Absentee Ballots - When this kind of stuff stops happening, it will go a long way towards restoring faith in our elections. The election director pleaded ‘mea culpa’ but the result was a change in the outcome of the District Attorney race when 10,000 additional mail-in ballots were discovered.
ID: Map of Transplants - This clickable map shows a breakdown of voters by former State and party that have recently moved to Idaho.
Great rundown, Tim. Thank you!
I especially appreciated the map. VoteIdaho.gov is a great resource. I gave it a plug here: https://eolson47.substack.com/i/137032962/voteidahogov-a-great-resource-for-all-things-vote-idaho