The 2014 state primary elections would be May 20, the earliest on record, under legislation approved by a Senate committee Thursday.
House Bill 310, sponsored by House Ethics Committee Chairman Joe Wilkinson, R-Sandy Springs, passed the Senate Ethics Committee by a 4-3 vote. It’s next stop is the Senate floor.
A federal judge ordered the state to move its federal primary from July to May 20 to allow for at least 45 days of absentee voting by military and overseas voters. HB 310 would move state and partisan county primaries to the same day.
The bill would also require all candidates to file a campaign finance report on March 31. That date, however, would appear mostly aimed at unelected challengers because incumbent state officials cannot raise money during the 40-day legislative session. With little or no fundraising to report, incumbents would have little to disclose by March 31.
Under Wilkinson’s proposal, which is sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Butch Miller, R-Gainesville, qualifying for the May 20 primary would run from March 3 to March 7.
Sens. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, Hardie Davis, D-Augusta, and Curt Thompson, D-Tucker, voted against the bill. McKoon said a better option would be to adopt “instant” runoff voting for absentee ballots, where a voter selects a primary candidate and a runoff candidate at the same time.
Davis raised concerns about how local governments, especially with consolidated city and county governments, are affected.
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