FIRST REGULAR SESSION
HOUSE BILL NO. 867
91ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES WALTON, JOHNSON (90) (Co-sponsors),
WILSON (42) AND JOHNSON (61).
Read 1st time February 22, 2001, and 1000 copies ordered printed.
TED WEDEL, Chief Clerk
AN ACT
To repeal sections 115.399, 115.625, 128.070 and 128.080, RSMo 2000, relating to presidential electors, and to enact in lieu thereof five new sections relating to the same subject, with penalty provisions.
Section A. Sections 115.399, 115.625, 128.070 and 128.080, RSMo 2000, are repealed and five new sections enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as sections 115.399, 115.625, 128.070, 128.080 and 128.115, to read as follows:
115.399. 1. Not later than the twelfth Tuesday prior to each presidential election, or notwithstanding any prior laws to the contrary, in the year 1996 and thereafter, within seven working days after choosing its nominees for president and vice president of the United States, whichever is later, the state committee of each established political party shall certify in writing to the secretary of state the names of its nominees for president and vice president of the United States.
2. Not later than the third Tuesday prior to each presidential election, the state committee of each established political party shall certify in writing to the secretary of state the names of its two nominees for at-large presidential elector. Not later than the third Tuesday prior to each presidential election, each congressional district committee of each established political party shall certify in writing to the secretary of state the name of its nominee for presidential elector from that district. At least one qualified resident of each congressional district shall be named as a nominee for presidential elector by each [state] such congressional district committee[, and]. The total number of nominees for presidential elector named by [each state committee] the state committees and congressional district committees of each such party shall equal the number to which the state is entitled.
3. When submitted for filing, each certification made by a state committee or congressional district committee pursuant to the provisions of subsection 2 of this section shall be accompanied by a declaration of candidacy for each candidate for presidential elector. Each declaration of candidacy shall state the candidate's full name, residence address, office for which such person proposes to be a candidate and that if elected the person will qualify. Each such declaration shall be in substantially the following form:
I, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , a resident of the . . . . . . . congressional district and the state of Missouri do announce myself a candidate for the office of presidential elector from the . . . . . . congressional district (state at large) on the . . . . . . . ticket, to be voted for at the presidential election to be held on the . . . . . . . . day of . . . . . . , 20. ., and I further declare that if nominated and elected to such office I will qualify.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Subscribed and sworn to
Signature of candidate before me this . . . . . . . . .
day of . . . . . , 20. .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Residence address Signature of election official or officer authorized to administer oaths
Each such declaration shall be subscribed and sworn to by the candidate before the election official receiving the certification, a notary public or other officer authorized by law to administer oaths.
115.625. 1. The state committee of any established political party may, except as otherwise provided by law, call a convention of delegates to be apportioned, chosen or elected in such manner as it may prescribe for the purpose of nominating its two at-large presidential electors, electing delegates to national conventions, electing members of national committees adopting or making declarations of party principles on national questions, and to do and perform any other act not inconsistent with the law.
2. The congressional district committee of any established political party may, except as otherwise provided by law, call a convention of delegates to be apportioned, chosen or elected in such manner as it may prescribe for the purpose of nominating its presidential elector.
128.070. The governor, on receipt of the certificates from the several counties in each district which [he] the governor may have received within fifteen days after the day of election, shall immediately add up the vote from the several counties, and [the]:
(1) For the electors nominated from congressional districts, each person [residing in any one district] having the highest number of votes given in [the state for any one person residing in the same] that person's electoral district shall [by him] be declared by the governor to be the duly elected elector for [said] that electoral district[.]; and
(2) For the electors nominated as at-large electors, the two persons nominated by the party or person whose electors receive the highest number of votes given in the state shall be declared by the governor to be the two duly elected at-large electors.
128.080. If two or more persons [residing] who reside in one electoral district and who are standing for election as presidential electors from such electoral district shall have an equal number of votes given in such district, or if two or more persons who are standing for election as presidential electors at-large from different persons or parties shall have an equal number of votes given in the state, as aforesaid, and more than any other person residing in the same district or in the state, as the case may be, the governor shall immediately notify the general assembly thereof, and such election shall be determined by joint vote of both houses of the general assembly, by choosing one of the persons so having an equal number of votes.
128.115. 1. The electors elected pursuant to this chapter shall, on the day appointed by act of congress for their meeting, cast their vote for the presidential and vice presidential candidate for whom they were nominated as electors, and for no other candidate.
2. Any elector who violates the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a class three election
offense.
Missouri House of
Representatives