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

[Sue Hovey]

We get rid of Sali, already recognized as one of the more zany  members of 
Congress, and Loertscher moves in to take his place among our own incumbent 
zanies JoAn Wood and Lenore Barrett.  I think there's a rule--you must have 
three to form a quorum, but they may be from either the House or Senate.

Sue
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>
To: "Vision 2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2007 3:29 AM
Subject: [Vision2020] Vote-By-Mail Measure Dies in Committee


> >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."
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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."
>
> ------------------------
>
> 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.
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Seeya at the polls, Moscow.
>
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>
> "If not us, who?
> If not now, when?"
>
> - Unknown
>
>
>
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