Nevada Assembly Bill 23 (2015)
| Nevada Assembly Bill 23 | |
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| Legislature: | Nevada State Legislature |
| Text: | AB 23 |
| Sponsor(s): | Legislative Operations and Elections |
| Legislative history | |
| Introduced: | December 20, 2014 |
| State house: | April 10, 2015 |
| State senate: | May 19, 2015 |
| Governor: | Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) |
| Signed: | June 4, 2015 |
| Legal environment | |
| State law: | Elections, campaign finance, recall and local government |
| Code: | Nevada Revised Statutes |
| Section: | NRS 293.247 |
Nevada Assembly Bill 23, which changed campaign finance and recall law to conform to a state supreme court ruling, was introduced by the Legislative Operations and Elections Committee of the Nevada State Senate on December 20, 2014. It was carried over to the 2015 legislative session and unanimously approved in the Nevada State Assembly on April 10, 2015. On May 19, 2015, the Nevada State Senate also unanimously approved AB 23. Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) signed the bill into law on June 4, 2015.[1][2]
Provisions
Assembly Bill 23 changed recall law to require all petition signatures to be collected from voters who actually cast a vote in the election that put the targeted official into office. This provision was enacted in compliance with Nevada Supreme Court ruling Strickland v. Waymire. AB 23 also made other various changes to elections law.[2]
Legislative counsel's digest
The following summary of AB 23 was provided by the state's legislative counsel:
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Existing law requires the Secretary of State to adopt regulations governing the conduct of primary, general, special and district elections. (NRS 293.247) Section 1 of this bill makes various changes to the types of regulations that the Secretary of State must adopt governing the conduct of elections. Existing law provides that certain cities must hold a general city election on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in June in odd-numbered years. (NRS 293C.140, 293C.145; Boulder City Charter § 96; Caliente City Charter § 5.010; Henderson City Charter § 5.020; Las Vegas City Charter § 5.020; North Las Vegas City Charter § 5.010; Yerington City Charter § 5.010) Sections 1.3, 1.5, 7-13 and 15 of this bill change the date of the general city election in those cities so that it occurs 1 week later on the second Tuesday after the first Monday in June in odd-numbered years. Sections 4-6 of this bill make the same change in the election date to the second Tuesday after the first Monday in June in odd-numbered years for certain local special elections seeking voter approval of certain local taxes and debt obligations. (NRS 350.020, 354.5982, 387.3285) During the 77th Session of the Legislature in 2013, the Legislature enacted legislation that amended the definition of the term “committee for political action” in the campaign finance laws to include certain businesses or organizations that make expenditures of a certain amount in a calendar year for the purpose of affecting the outcome of any election or question on the ballot. (NRS 294A.0055, 294A.230; chapter 259, Statutes of Nevada 2013, pp. 1149-51) In 2013, the Legislature also enacted legislation that added a definition of the term “independent expenditure” to the campaign finance laws, but this newly defined term was not incorporated into the definition of the term “committee for political action.” (NRS 294A.0077; chapter 425, Statutes of Nevada 2013, p. 2379) Sections 1.7 and 2.1 of this bill harmonize the 2013 legislation by incorporating the term “independent expenditure” into the definition of the term “committee for political action.” Under existing law, a person may not contribute or commit to contribute more than $5,000 for a primary election and $5,000 for a general election to a candidate for state, district, county or township office during the period beginning 30 days before the start of the regular session of the Legislature immediately after a general election for that office and ending 30 days before the start of the regular session of the Legislature immediately following the next general election for that office. During the same period, a person is prohibited from making or committing to make a contribution to a legal defense fund of a candidate or public officer in an amount which exceeds $10,000. Existing law also prohibits a candidate or public officer, as applicable, from accepting a contribution or commitment to make a contribution in excess of those amounts. (Nev. Const. Art. 2, § 10; NRS 294A.100, 294A.287) Section 2 of this bill changes the period to which those contribution limits apply so that the period begins on January 1 immediately after a general election for an office and ends on December 31 immediately after the next general election for that office. Existing law provides that a violation of the contribution limits to a candidate or a legal defense fund is a category E felony. (NRS 294A.100, 294A.287) Section 14 of this bill provides that certain contributions made or committed to be made under existing law at the end of the contribution periods in early January 2011, 2013 or 2015 shall be deemed to have been made or committed to be made on December 31, 2010, 2012 or 2014, respectively, so that no person is guilty retrospectively of committing a crime as a result of the changes made by section 2. Existing law requires a committee for the recall of a public officer to report certain contributions received and expenditures made by the committee during its recall efforts. Existing law also requires such a committee to comply with the reporting requirements when it does not submit a legally sufficient recall petition to the filing officer before the expiration of the period for circulating the petition for signatures. (NRS 294A.270, 294A.280) Sections 2.3 and 2.5 of this bill clarify that such a committee must comply with the reporting requirements if it: (1) fails to submit the petition to the filing officer; (2) submits the petition to the filing officer without any valid signatures or with fewer than the necessary number of valid signatures; or (3) otherwise submits a legally insufficient petition or suspends or ceases its efforts to obtain the necessary number of valid signatures. Finally, in Strickland v. Waymire, 126 Nev. 230, 240 (2010), the Nevada Supreme Court held that Section 9 of Article 2 of the Nevada Constitution provides that, “[w]hile all registered voters can vote at a special recall election, only voters who voted at the relevant baseline election can qualify a recall petition” by signing a petition for the recall. Section 3 of this bill conforms existing law to this ruling. (NRS 306.020)[3] |
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| —Nevada legislative counsel[4] | ||
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ Nevada Appeal, "Gov. Brian Sandoval signs election bill, many others," June 6, 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Open States, "Nevada Assembly Bill 23 (2015)," accessed December 11, 2015
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Nevada State Legislature, "Assembly Bill 23 (2015)," accessed December 21, 2015
