Meetings
Transcript: Select text below to play or share a clip
[Martin LaLonde (Chair)]: House judiciary committee this Thursday afternoon, January twenty ninth. Turning to h five four one, which is a bill that we see in appearance with voters and election officials. Looking at draft number 2.1, we had some testimony yesterday and last week and been looking on this bill. I think it's in pretty good shape at this point and I would take a motion. Let me see what the motion is. So it's a motion to approve the strike all amendment. So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Who was second?
[Karen Dolan (Member)]: Ian. Bobbie. Representative.
[Martin LaLonde (Chair)]: I'm not Steve, do you
[Ian Goodnow (Member)]: want to As one of the co sponsors of the bill, I'd just say, really appreciate the work that we've done on this to get it in the place it's at now. I think we took a really good testimony, and we've gotten this to a place where it's going to accomplish the goal of this bill, which is to ensure that we've got protections and criminal statutes in place for the type of potential interference that we can see in elections uniform. So appreciate the time that we've put into it.
[Martin LaLonde (Chair)]: Anybody else?
[Karen Dolan (Member)]: So nobody should be threatened as part of their work, and I think it's really important that this bill get enacted in July to protect our municipal and state workers who have experienced inappropriate behaviors in the past and hopefully be a prevention of this in the future, so that our elections are as boring as possible from an eventful standpoint and are able to run smoothly.
[Martin LaLonde (Chair)]: I appreciate it. I thought we had very good testimony from the municipal clerk as well as some constitutional experts. I think we're in good shape. Anybody else? Not seen any of the court. LaLonde?
[Karen Dolan (Member)]: Yes. Dolan? Yes.
[Martin LaLonde (Chair)]: Goodnow? Yes. Jose, yeah. Harvey? Yes. Malay? Yes. Oliver? Yes. Rachelson? Yes. Christie, absent. Verdict? Yes. So long? Yes. And Ian has agreed to report this, so you know what to do to the court office. So tomorrow we have H5 scheduled for a vote, possible vote on the H626, which is the voyeurism bill. And there have been two kind of outstanding issues. One, and I did talk to Alicia a little bit about this offline, whether to do it from a misdemeanor to a felony. This one provision, we'll talk about that more tomorrow. And if we're all on board, we'll go ahead and vote it. The other has to do with taking out without consent. And if you had a conversation with Michelle, we can talk about this again tomorrow as well. But and having read the Van Buren case, I suggest everybody read that. I think we leave it in. It doesn't hurt anything. And it may cause problems if we take it out, given that case that really looked at that element as part of what they were considering when determining that this did not violate the First Amendment, at least our current law. So it doesn't hurt keeping it in. It's like safety. But Michelle can talk a little bit about that tomorrow. But just want to give you all a heads up, particularly if you want to read that case in advance of voting on it, I'm happy to send it to you. We are I don't know. Do we have our
[Karen Dolan (Member)]: If we're voting on h five tomorrow, I'm happy to connect with Michelle. We need an updated version because the effective date is still incorrect.
[Martin LaLonde (Chair)]: Yeah. If you could, yeah, contact her. So also tomorrow we're gonna have, this is just so I'm not keeping you once we have heard from some of the mental health advocates who are here today. At 11:00, Judge Zone and Attorney McManus would be talking about the Animal Criminal Kill. As we continue to struggle, maybe we can get it to be like a fair change bill. And then in the afternoon, we have a number of witnesses on the statute of repose bill, just some folks who are less relieved. And do we have our mental health advocates? Are they here? Let's kind of just stand down for a minute. I guess we can go off live real quick. But I asked them, they are supposed to be here at free, but we can get started without me. What time it for? Free. So I'd like to have them start now if they're here because then we'll get off ten minutes before the floor. Let me see if they're