|
Election officer wants more time to review clergy voting bill
Tuesday,
April 29, 2008
Chief Election Officer Soliai Tuipine told a Senate hearing this morning that a bill to allow church ministers assigned overseas, their spouses and children to vote absentee in the gubernatorial and House of Representatives election needs careful scrutiny.
He asked senators to give his office time to review the proposed legislation. A conference committee between the full House and Senate got underway after 11 this morning to discuss the differences between the two chambers on the military voting bill. The House is insisting that a provision it added to the military voting bill, to allow clergy and their dependents to vote absentee, be left intact. The Senate is against the provision. It says that the bill is intended for soldiers and a separate bill is needed to address voting rights of men of the cloth and their families.
| 
