HB 124-FILLING VACANCY IN LEGISLATURE  4:48:48 PM CHAIR CLAMAN announced that the final order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 124, "An Act relating to filling a vacancy in the legislature by appointment." 4:50:26 PM REPRESENTATIVE BEN CARPENTER, Alaska State Legislature, prime sponsor of HB 124, provided a summary of the legislation. He indicated that the bill would clarify the existing ambiguity in AS 15.40.320 regarding filling vacancy appointments to the Alaska State Legislature. 4:52:20 PM REPRESENTATIVE VANCE directed attention to paragraph (2) on page 1, line 13, of HB 124 and asked how a special election could be held before the legislature convened by special session if that were to occur. 4:53:20 PM MEGAN WALLACE, Director, Legislative Legal Services, Legislative Affairs Agency, explained that a special election would be used to fill a vacancy in the Senate that occurred for an unexpired term of more than two years and five full calendar months. She remarked: What the statute says is that the governor will not fill that vacancy if that special election is going to determine who's going to fill that seat before the next special session or the next time the legislature, for example, convenes its second session or meets in some other manner. REPRESENTATIVE VANCE asked: So, if we were in that window of time and a special session was called, what would be the process? Is that the person for Senate would just go along with the election along with the two-year representatives' election? Or would there be a time that there would have to be a seat filled so that there is a full session during a special session? MS. WALLACE asked her to repeat the question. REPRESENTATIVE VANCE inquired about the timeline and sequence of events that would occur if a vacancy occurred and a special session was called. MS. WALLACE shared her understanding that if the legislature was going to meet before a special election could be held to permanently fill a vacancy in the Senate, the temporary appointment would serve until there was a special election held to fill the seat. 4:57:23 PM CHAIR CLAMAN shared his understanding that the current statute on special elections suggested that the governor would not be allowed to fill a vacancy in the Senate that occurred within the first year and a half of a four-year term. He explained that in that scenario, a "special election" would be held in November of that next "go-around," effectively holding an election to fill the remaining two years of the four-year term. Alternatively, as members of the House were elected every two years, the governor could appoint an individual to fill a vacancy in the House for the remainder of the two years. MS. WALLACE believed that he was correct. 5:00:20 PM REPRESENTATIVE EASTMAN considered a scenario in which an election was held to fill a vacancy in the House to ensure that a portion of the state didn't lose representation for a period of time. REPRESENTATIVE CARPENTER remarked: I think I understand what you're saying- if you have a vacancy that occurs generally around an election and the election occurs and there's a certified winner but the vacancy hasn't been filled yet, then the governor just appointing the winner of the election to fill the vacancy and then when the next legislative session happens, then the winner of that election continues on for their new term. REPRESENTATIVE CARPENTER asked if that was correct. REPRESENTATIVE EASTMAN answered yes; however, he suggested that vacancy could be automatically filled by the certified election winner. He surmised that the governor wouldn't necessarily need to appoint the certified winner to fill the vacancy. REPRESENTATIVE CARPENTER pointed out that whether the new legislator was appointed or won the election, he/she would be sworn in to fill the two-year term. REPRESENTATIVE EASTMAN agreed; however, he pointed out that the process of swearing in a legislator did not have to occur during session. CHAIR CLAMAN announced that HB 124 was held over.