H.B. 142
         ISSUES SUBMITTED TO VOTERS

house floor Amendments

Amendment 1 February 15, 2005 12:46 pm



Representative Gregory H. Hughes proposes the following amendments:

1.    Page 1, Line 14 :    

             14          This bill:
    
  .    establishes uniform standards for determining whether a signer's signature on a local initiative petition is valid or not;

    .    provides for placement of birth date information on initiative petitions;  


2.    Page 3, Line 59 :    

             59          20A-7-503, as last amended by Chapter 3, Laws of Utah 2000
    
  20A-7-506, as last amended by Chapter 3, laws of Utah 2000      


3.    Page 3, Line 64 :    

             64          20A-7-502.5, Utah Code Annotated 1953
    
  20A-7-506.3, Utah Code Annotated 1953      


4.    Page 20, Lines 599 through 604 :    

             599          (ii) the next column shall be
{   three   }        2-1/2       inches wide, headed "Registered Voter's Printed

             600      Name (must be legible to be counted)";
             601          (iii) the next column shall be
{   three   }        2-1/2       inches wide, headed "Signature of Registered

             602      Voter";
{   and   }       

    (iv) the next column shall be one inch wide, headed "Birth Date"; and  

             603          
{   (iv)   }        (v)       the final column shall be 4-3/8 inches wide, headed "Street Address, City, Zip

             604      Code"; and

5.    Page 21, Lines 617 through 618 :    

             617      followed, the initiative petitions are sufficient, notwithstanding clerical and merely technical
             618      errors.
    
  Section 13. Section 20A-7-506 is amended to read:      

         20A-7-506 .   Submitting the initiative petition -- Certification of signatures by the county clerks -- Transfer to local clerk.
         (1) No later than 120 days before any regular general election, for county initiatives, or municipal general election, for municipal initiatives, the sponsors shall deliver each signed and verified

initiative packet to the county clerk of the county in which the packet was circulated.
         (2) No later than 90 days before any general election, the county clerk shall:
         (a) check the names of all persons completing the verification on the back of each signature sheet to determine whether or not those persons are residents of Utah and are at least 18 years old; and
         (b) submit the name of each of those persons who is not a Utah resident or who is not at least 18 years old to the attorney general and county attorney.
         (3) No later than 60 days before any general election, the county clerk shall:
         (a)

{   check all the names of the signers against the official registers to   } determine whether or not      {   the   }        each       signer is a voter        according to the requirements of Section 20A-7-506.3       ;

         (b) certify on the petition whether or not each name is that of a voter; and
         (c) deliver all of the packets to the local clerk.
    
  Section 14. Section 20A-7-506.3 is enacted to read:

    20A-7-506.3. Verification of petition signatures.
    (1) (a) For the purposes of this section, "substantially similar name" means:
    (i) the given name and surname shown on the petition, or both, contain only minor spelling differences when compared to the given name and surname shown on the official register;
    (ii) the surname shown on the petition exactly matches the surname shown on the official register, and the given names differ only because one of the given names shown is a commonly used abbreviation or variation of the other;
    (iii) the surname shown on the petition exactly matches the surname shown on the official register, and the given names differ only because one of the given names shown is accompanied by a first or middle initial or a middle name which is not shown on the other record; or
    (iv) the surname shown on the petition exactly matches the surname shown on the official register, and the given names differ only because one of the given names shown is an alphabetically corresponding initial that has been provided in the place of a given name shown on the other record.
    (b) For the purposes of this section, "substantially similar name" does not mean a name having an initial or a middle name shown on the petition that does not match a different initial or middle name shown on the official register.
    (2) The county clerk shall use the following procedures in determining whether or not a signer is a registered voter:
    (a) When a signer's name and address shown on the petition exactly match a name and address shown on the official register, the county clerk shall declare the signature valid.
    (b) When there is no exact match of an address and a name, the county clerk shall declare the signature valid if the address on the petition matches the address of a person on the official register with a substantially similar name.
    (c) When there is no match of an address and a substantially similar name, the county clerk shall declare the signature valid if the birth date on the petition matches the birth date of a person on the official register with a substantially similar name.

    (d) If a signature is not declared valid under Subsection (2)(a), (2)(b), or (2)(c), the county clerk shall declare the signature to be invalid.  


Renumber remaining sections accordingly.

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