HB 94-ELECTIONS/VOTERS/POLITICAL PARTIES CHAIR SAMUELS announced that the only order of business was HOUSE BILL NO. 94, "An Act relating to qualifications of voters, requirements and procedures regarding independent candidates for President and Vice-President of the United States, voter registration and voter registration records, voter registration through a power of attorney, voter registration using scanned documents, voter residence, precinct boundary and polling place designation and modification, recognized political parties, voters unaffiliated with a political party, early voting, absentee voting, application for absentee ballots through a power of attorney, or by scanned documents, ballot design, ballot counting, voting by mail, voting machines, vote tally systems, initiative, referendum, recall, and definitions in the Alaska Election Code; relating to incorporation elections; and providing for an effective date." [Before the committee was CSHB 94(FIN)am and SCS CSHB 94(STA).] CHAIR SAMUELS directed attention to a Conference Committee Substitute (CS) for HB 94, Version 24-GH1048\U. He noted that the changes made in Version U deleted Sections 11, 12, and 13. 4:34:10 PM SENATOR THERRIAULT pointed to changes made by the Senate. He said there were technical changes requested by [Laura Glaiser], the director of the Division of Elections. He stated that there had been a section of the bill that proposed a different criteria for qualifying as a party. He said, "We stuck with the current statutory language that was just put in place last year; it's a cascading mechanism that's based on 3 percent of the voter turnout." He said it used to be that a small party could hope to meet the qualifications every four years, based on the gubernatorial race. Other standards were put in last year, he said, which offered the smaller parties the opportunity to qualify once every two years, instead of once every four. 4:35:15 PM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG mentioned that there was also language that conformed to SB 36 regarding "the broadest choice." He stated, "For example, in a Republican primary in a Republican ... district, that may be the closed primary, and the person might not be eligible to participate. So, we took that language out." 4:35:53 PM SENATOR THERRIAULT explained, "There was a reference to a ballot that was the creation of a court decision a couple years ago, but it doesn't, in fact, exist in the statutes as they read today. So, a sentence was taken out on that." 4:36:10 PM CHAIR GARY STEVENS moved to report CCS HB 94, Version 24- GH1048\U, out of committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal notes. There being no objection, CCS HB 94 was reported out of the Conference Committee.