A controversial provision in a Colorado election security bill that would have prohibited election officials from spreading misinformation was stripped from the legislation during a Senate floor debate Thursday.
“I am sad, to be totally honest, that we can’t all agree that an election official shouldn’t lie to their constituents,” said Senate Bill 22-153 sponsor and Senate President Stephen Fenberg, a Democrat from Boulder.
“With that said, because I want to focus on the pieces of the bill that are important and are not just about value statements … I am more than willing to remove this section to make sure we can focus on what is important here,” he said.
The Senate passed SB-153 on second reading Thursday with the amendment striking the misinformation provision and two other amendments. It will need to pass on third reading before heading to the House of Representatives.
As originally introduced, the bill’s misinformation provision said that no designated election official should “knowingly or recklessly” spread any “false statement for the purposes of promoting misinformation or disinformation related to the administration of elections.”
Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters, a Republican recently indicted for her role in allegedly facilitating an election system security breach, has repeatedly spread false claims that there was widespread voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election. Many parts of SB-153 specifically address actions Peters is...
Renowned human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has criticised President Bola Tinubu for relying on claims by United States President Donald Trump regarding the reported killing of senior Islamic ...