We are still trying to find more information, but it has now come to our attention that the State House has rejected the amendments to HB2134 added by the Senate. Doing so, the bill has now been sent to a conference committee for further review.

Unfortunately, ballot access reform bills have a pretty terrible history when it comes to conference committees. In 2009, HB1072 was passed by both the Senate and the House, but with differing language on the number of signatures. That bill went to a conference committee where it languished and died with no action. In 2011, HB1058 passed the Senate and House with differing signature language. While the house made its recommendations, the Senate never looked at the bill and it died.

We are looking for comments about why the Senate amendments were rejected as we felt that nothing in those amendments were worth letting the bill die. We will provide further updates as we learn more.