Committee agrees on bill to crack down on candidate residency

Assemblywoman Victoria Seaman speaks with the Review-Journal editorial board at the Review-Journal in Las Vegas Friday, July 25, 2014. (Erik Verduzco/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

CARSON CITY — A Senate committee Monday agreed with the concept of a bill cracking down on candidate residency violations but disagreed on how vacancies should be handled if a person deemed ineligible should win at the ballot box.

Assembly Bill 177, sponsored by Assemblywoman Victoria Seaman, R-Las Vegas, and others, would increase to 180 from 30 the number of days a candidate for a legislative seat must live in their district. It also would dictate that any votes cast for an ineligible candidate who appears on the ballot would not count, meaning the person who receives the next-highest number of votes would be declared the winner.

State Sen. Kelvin Atkinson, D-Las Vegas, said instead of not counting the votes, a vacancy should be declared because of the ineligibility. That would leave it up to the county commission to appoint a replacement, who must be of the same political party as the person creating the vacancy.

The bill would make it a felony crime to sign a false declaration of candidacy, as opposed to a gross misdemeanor under existing law, and make violators liable for attorney’s fees and costs.

AB177 was approved by the Assembly on a party-line vote. No action was taken Monday by the Senate Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections.

Candidate residency has been an issue in the past two elections. A day before the 2012 general election, a judge declared that Andrew Martin, a Democratic candidate for Assembly District 9, did not reside in the district. But Martin won anyway and was seated by the Democratic majority under the state constitution, which gives the Senate and Assembly sole power to determine the qualifications of their own members.

Last year, Seaman’s Democratic opponent, Meghan Smith, also was declared ineligible by a judge for not meeting residency requirements in Assembly District 34. The court ordered signs posted notifying voters that she was ineligible, but it was too late in the process to remove her name from the ballot.

Another Democratic candidate, Jesse “Jake” Holder, also was found ineligible last year by a judge because of residency issues in Assembly District 10. He was defeated by Shelly Shelton, R-Las Vegas.