HB 406: "An Act relating to a requirement for competitive bidding on contracts for the preparation of election ballots."
00 HOUSE BILL NO. 406 01 "An Act relating to a requirement for competitive bidding on contracts for the 02 preparation of election ballots." 03 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 04 * Section 1. AS 15.15.030 is amended to read: 05 Sec. 15.15.030. Preparation of official ballot. The director shall prepare all 06 official ballots to facilitate fairness, simplicity, and clarity in the voting procedure, to 07 reflect most accurately the intent of the voter, and to expedite the administration of 08 elections. The following directives shall be followed when applicable: 09 (1) The director shall determine the size of the ballot, the type of print, 10 necessary additional instruction notes to voters, and other similar matters of form not 11 provided by law. 12 (2) The director shall number ballots in series to assure simplicity and 13 secrecy and to prevent fraud. 14 (3) The director may contract for the preparation of the ballots on a
01 regional basis if necessary and shall [MAY] contract for the preparation of ballots by 02 [WITHOUT] obtaining competitive bids as provided in AS 15.15.031. 03 (4) The director may not include on the ballot as a part of a candidate's 04 name, any honorary or assumed title or prefix but may include in the candidate's name 05 any nickname or familiar form of a proper name of the candidate. 06 (5) The names of the candidates and their party designations shall be 07 placed in separate sections on the state general election ballot under the office 08 designation to which they were nominated. The party affiliation, if any, shall be 09 designated after the name of the candidate. The lieutenant governor and the governor 10 shall be included under the same section. Provision shall be made for voting for write- 11 in and no-party candidates within each section. Paper ballots for the state general 12 election shall be printed on white paper. 13 (6) The names of the candidates for each office shall be set out in the 14 same order on ballots printed for use in each house district. The director shall 15 randomly determine the order of the names of the candidates for state representative 16 for each house district. The director shall rotate the order of placement of the names of 17 candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, United States senator, United States 18 representative, and state senator on the ballot for each house district. 19 (7) The general election ballot shall be designed with the names of 20 candidates of each political party, and of any independent candidates qualified under 21 AS 15.30.026, for the office of President and Vice-President of the United States 22 placed in the same section on the ballot rather than the names of electors of President 23 and Vice-President. 24 (8) The general or special election ballot shall be designed with the 25 title and proposition for any initiative, referendum, or constitutional amendment 26 formulated as prescribed by law and placed on the ballot in the manner prescribed by 27 the director. When placed on the ballot, a state ballot proposition or ballot question 28 shall carry the number that was assigned to the petition for the proposition or question. 29 Provision shall be made for marking the proposition "Yes" or "No." 30 (9) The general or special election ballot shall be designed with the 31 question of whether a constitutional convention shall be called placed on the ballot in
01 the following manner: "Shall there be a constitutional convention?" Provision shall be 02 made for marking the question "Yes" or "No." 03 (10) A nonpartisan ballot shall be designed for each judicial district in 04 which a justice or judge is seeking retention in office. The ballot shall be divided into 05 four parts and each part must bear a heading indicating the court to which the 06 candidate is seeking approval. Within each part, the question of whether the justice or 07 judge shall be approved or rejected shall be set out in substantially the following 08 manner: (A) "Shall . . . . . . . be retained as justice of the supreme court for 10 years?"; 09 (B) "Shall . . . . . . . . . be retained as judge of the court of appeals for eight years?"; (C) 10 "Shall . . . . . . . be retained as judge of the superior court for six years?"; or (D) "Shall 11 . . . . . . . be retained as judge of the district court for four years?" Provision shall be 12 made for marking each question "Yes" or "No." 13 (11) When the legislature by law authorizes a state debt for capital 14 improvements, the director shall place the question of whether the specific 15 authorization shall be ratified by placing the ballot title and question on the next 16 general election ballot, or on the special election ballot if a special election is held for 17 the purpose of ratifying the state debt for capital improvements before the time of the 18 next general election. Unless specifically provided otherwise in the Act authorizing 19 the debt, the ballot title shall, by the use of a few words in a succinct manner, indicate 20 the general subject of the Act. The question shall, by the use of a few sentences in a 21 succinct manner, give a true and impartial summary of the Act authorizing the state 22 debt. The question of whether state debt shall be contracted shall be assigned a letter 23 of the alphabet on the ballot. Provision shall be made for marking the question 24 substantially as follows: 25 "Bonds. . . . . . . Yes" or "Bonds . . . . . . No," 26 followed by an appropriate oval. 27 (12) [REPEALED 28 (13)] The director may provide for the optical scanning of ballots 29 where the requisite equipment is available. 30 (13) [(14)] The director may provide for voting by use of electronically 31 generated ballots by a voter who requests to use a machine that produces electronically
01 generated ballots. 02 * Sec. 2. AS 15.15 is amended by adding a new section to read: 03 Sec. 15.15.031. Contracts for the preparation of election ballots. (a) Except 04 as provided in (b) of this section, the director shall award a contract for the preparation 05 of election ballots based on the solicited bids with reasonable promptness by written 06 notice to the lowest responsible and responsive bidder whose bid conforms in all 07 material respects to the requirements and criteria set out in the invitation to bid. 08 (b) The director shall award a contract based on solicited bids to the lowest 09 responsive and responsible bidder after an Alaska bidder preference of five percent. In 10 this subsection, "Alaska bidder" means a person who 11 (1) holds a current Alaska business license; 12 (2) submits a bid for ballot preparation under the name as appearing on 13 the person's current Alaska business license; 14 (3) has maintained a place of business in the state staffed by the bidder 15 or an employee of the bidder for a period of six months immediately preceding the 16 date of the bid; 17 (4) is 18 (A) incorporated or qualified to do business under the laws of 19 the state; 20 (B) a sole proprietorship and the proprietor is a resident of the 21 state; 22 (C) a limited liability company organized under AS 10.50 and 23 all members are residents of the state; or 24 (D) a partnership under former AS 32.05, AS 32.06, or 25 AS 32.11 and all partners are residents of the state; and 26 (5) if a joint venture, is composed entirely of ventures that qualify 27 under (1) - (4) of this subsection. 28 * Sec. 3. The uncodified law of the State of Alaska is amended by adding a new section to 29 read: 30 APPLICABILITY. This Act applies to contracts for the preparation of ballots for 31 elections conducted on or after January 1, 2009.