Buescher busy in first legislative session as Secretary of State

Credits the Department’s customers as biggest winners

Denver, May 14, 2009 – With the conclusion of the legislative session, Secretary of State Bernie Buescher shared his legislative successes since taking office only four months ago.

“The cooperation and bipartisan sponsorship of these agenda items really speak to the practical solutions achieved,” said Buescher. “The big winners from these bills are the voters, business filers and transparency advocates. I look forward to implementing these initiatives in the near future.”

Though the Secretary remained busy addressing bills from elections to business filings, his primary agenda centered on the following seven bills.

HB-1357 – Vigil/Schwartz – County campaign finance reports filed with Sec. of State
With the Secretary of State currently developing a new online campaign finance filing system, Buescher determined that the system should also be programmed for county filings with the Department. Currently, many county candidates and committees submit their paper records to the county clerk. County staffers then have to enter those filings manually using the Secretary of State’s web site. This bill requires these local committees to now file directly with the Secretary of State saving resources for the counties.

HB-1153 – May/Harvey – Issue committees under the Fair Campaigns Practices Act
Incorporating a judge’s decision from a recent court case, HB-1153 clarifies when an issue committee is required to file campaign finance filing reports, and more specifically, when campaign finance laws affect committees participating in municipal annexation elections. This bill was already signed into law.

SB-283 – Sandoval/Scanlon-Summers – Redaction of tax ID numbers
Attracting unanimous approval from both houses, SB-283 allows the Secretary of State to utilize commercial software to review secured transaction documents to identify and redact social security numbers. In the past, these business filings required social security numbers and images of those documents were available on the state’s web site. Those images will remain unavailable until the software reviews each image and redacts any potential social security numbers.

SB-111 – Bacon/Court – Sunset Notaries Public Act
Already signed into law, SB-111 revises the Notaries Public Act giving the Secretary of State additional oversight and rulemaking authority for Colorado’s notaries. Additionally, notaries will be required to attend a notary education course and maintain a journal to record all transactions made. The bill initiates these and other safeguards intended to protect notaries and their customers.

HB-1018 – Bradford/Spence – SCORE System and HAVA compliance
With the successful implementation of the federally-mandated statewide voter registration system (SCORE) last year, HB-1018 changes state law from county-based voter registration systems into one, real-time statewide system. The bill was signed by Governor Ritter last month.

HB-1216 – Murray/Newell – Election Code Revisions
This technical clean-up bill addresses lessons learned last election following the popularity of the permanent mail voter list and the implementation of the SCORE system. 1216 passed both chambers unanimously and has already been signed by the governor.

SB-084 – Scheffel/Scanlon – Secured transactions e-filing
Already signed by the governor, SB-084 streamlines online filings for secured transaction documents.