Three bills related to voting and elections passed through the House and Senate Governmental Affairs Committees on Wednesday.
Two of the bills–one by Rep. Frederick Jones, D-Bastrop, and the other by Sen. Louie Bernard, R-Natchitoches–would extend the early voting period and create additional provisions for a noncampaigning zone during the early voting periods. The third, by Sen. Sharon Hewitt, R-Slidell, would mandate the secretary of state to examine voting machines if requested as well as creating certification standards for new voting systems. Kyle Ardoin, the Louisiana secretary of state, testified on behalf of all three bills.
Hewitt’s bill, Senate Bill 221, also would create the Voting System Commission–a group of 13 members that would research possible voting systems and give a report to Ardoin to guide him on which type of voting system to seek. Members of the commission would include members appointed by the secretary of state and the governor as well as hired election experts. SB221 also would create the Voting System Proposal Evaluation Committee that would test the recommended voting systems. Hewitt stated that this would be the first time that constituents had the opportunity to express their concerns regarding election systems. She added that she feels like the public bid process for voting systems does not work as well as the process in the private industry.
All three bills were reported favorably and move on for debate in their respective chamber
