Senate File 2346 - Reprinted SENATE FILE 2346 BY COMMITTEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT (SUCCESSOR TO SSB 3191) (As Amended and Passed by the Senate March 6, 2018 ) A BILL FOR An Act relating to the ballot arrangement for certain partisan 1 offices. 2 BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA: 3 SF 2346 (2) 87 ss/jh/ko
S.F. 2346 Section 1. Section 49.31, subsection 1, Code 2018, is 1 amended to read as follows: 2 1. a. All ballots shall be arranged with the names of 3 candidates for each office listed below the office title. 4 For partisan elections the name of the political party or 5 organization which nominated each candidate shall be listed 6 after or below each candidate’s name. 7 b. (1) The commissioner shall determine the order of 8 political parties and nonparty political organizations 9 candidates on the ballot as provided in this paragraph . The 10 sequence order shall be the same for each office on the ballot 11 and for each precinct in the county voting in the election. 12 The commissioner shall arrange the ballot so that the 13 candidates of each political party, as defined in section 43.2, 14 for each partisan office appearing on the ballot shall appear 15 in descending order so that the candidates of the political 16 party whose candidate for governor received the greatest number 17 of votes in the commissioner’s county at the most recent 18 general election for the office of the governor shall appear 19 first on the ballot, and the candidates of the political party 20 whose candidate for governor received the next greatest number 21 of votes in the commissioner’s county in such an election 22 appear next on the ballot, and continuing in descending order 23 in the same manner. 24 (2) If the candidate for governor from two or more political 25 parties received the same number of votes in the county, the 26 commissioner shall determine the order of arranging political 27 party candidates for those political parties based upon the 28 number of votes received in the most recent general election 29 for the office of the governor for which the number of votes 30 received for the candidates of those political parties were 31 different. 32 c. The commissioner shall determine the order of candidates 33 of nonparty political organizations on the ballot. The order 34 shall be the same for each office on the ballot and for each 35 -1- SF 2346 (2) 87 ss/jh/ko 1/ 2
S.F. 2346 precinct in the county voting in the election. 1 Sec. 2. Section 49.31, subsection 2, paragraph b, Code 2018, 2 is amended to read as follows: 3 b. The Notwithstanding any provision of subsection 1, 4 paragraph “b” , to the contrary, the commissioner shall then 5 arrange the surnames of each political party’s candidates for 6 each office to which two or more persons are to be elected at 7 large alphabetically for the respective offices for the first 8 precinct on the list; thereafter, for each political party and 9 for each succeeding precinct, the names appearing first for 10 the respective offices in the last preceding precinct shall 11 be placed last, so that the names that were second before the 12 change shall be first after the change. The commissioner may 13 also rotate the names of candidates of a political party in the 14 reverse order of that provided in this subsection or alternate 15 the rotation so that the candidates of different parties shall 16 not be paired as they proceed through the rotation. The 17 procedure for arrangement of names on ballots provided in this 18 section shall likewise be substantially followed in elections 19 in political subdivisions of less than a county. 20 -2- SF 2346 (2) 87 ss/jh/ko 2/ 2