General Assembly Proposed Bill No. 5990
January Session, 2011 LCO No. 775
Referred to Committee on Government Administration and Elections
Introduced by:
REP. SCHOFIELD, 16th Dist.
General Assembly
Proposed Bill No. 5990
January Session, 2011
LCO No. 775
Referred to Committee on Government Administration and Elections
Introduced by:
REP. SCHOFIELD, 16th Dist.
AN ACT CONCERNING REFINEMENTS TO THE ELECTION LAWS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:
That title 9 of the general statutes be amended to provide that (1) "public declaration" of intent to run, which forces the candidate to switch from exploratory to campaign committee, be defined to more closely mirror the interpretation given to the term by the State Elections Enforcement Commission in Declaratory Ruling 2009-01 which permits a major party candidate to make such an announcement without filing a candidate committee if such announcement is only made to a town committee, but enables a petitioning or minor party candidate to tell anyone that he or she is running, if they might sign his or her petition; (2) there be a separate petitioning process for securing a place on the ballot and a separate process to petition for a grant, with the petition for the grant clearly stating that the petition is to secure a grant from the Client Security Fund and that anyone collecting signatures for the grant petition must make a clear, verbal statement that the petition is to secure state grant money; (3) donors be entitled to a return of their campaign donation during a one-week period after making the donation and that all candidates give donors a written explanation of the purpose of the donation, to qualify for a state grant, and that the explanation include information on how to ask for a refund, provided, in the case of an unsolicited donation, such written explanation must be provided within five business days of receipt of the donation; (4) "advisor", as used in the definition of organization expenditure, be defined to provide that the advisor must provide skilled service such as not circulating petitions or making copies; and (5) donors be permitted to use one check from a joint account for two donors with two signed donor forms and to allow checks drawn from the account of a sole proprietor.
Statement of Purpose:
To refine the election reform laws to provide for a definition of "public declaration", a dual petition process for ballot access and grant qualification, a provision for a campaign donor to receive a refund of the donation during a certain period of time, a statement of the meaning of an "advisor" in the context of organization expenditures, to permit donors to use one check from a joint checking account for two donors and to allow donors to draw checks from the account of a sole proprietorship as a campaign donation.