03/25/2025

House Bill 196

Lead Sponsors: Representative Rodney Creech and Representative Angie King

Status: Introduced (March 24, 2025)

Description: The bill allows any valid elector to file a protest against any person's candidacy for a political party nomination for a given office under the grounds that the individual, if elected, would be ineligible for any of the following reasons:

• The person is not a US citizen
• The person would not yet have reached the minimum age the office requires
• The person would exceed the age limit for the office
• The person would exceed term limits the object is subject to
• The person is ineligible due to a criminal conviction
• The person is ineligible due to prohibitions on concurrent officeholding
• The person did not properly disclose any former names within the past five years on their statement of candidacy paperwork.

The bill additionally adds space on statement of candidacy paperwork for prospective candidates to list any other names they used in the prior five years before seeking office. Name changes due to marriage do not need to be listed.

CCAO Position: No position (as of April 2025)