BILL ANALYSIS

Senate Research Center	S.B. 1933
88R13888 MPF-F	By: Bettencourt
	State Affairs
	3/28/2023
	As Filed

AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

Under current law, the secretary of state is required to conduct an audit of elections held in four counties during the previous two years.  Two large counties and two smaller counties.  The vast majority of the counties are under a population of 300,000 and it will take a very long time to audit every single county at this pace. The audits of the smaller counties are usually faster than the large counties. 

S.B. 1933 would define the elections to be audited as those conducted on uniform election dates. Additionally, S.B. 1933 would allow that if the secretary of state finishes a small county before the end of the two-year period, they may randomly select another small county and perform the audit on that new county. This will allow the secretary of state to be able to review more counties if time and resources permit. 

As proposed, S.B. 1933 amends current law relating to the randomized audits of elections in certain counties.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

Rulemaking authority previously granted to the secretary of state is modified in SECTION 1 (Section 127.351, Election Code) of this bill.

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1. Amends Section 127.351, Election Code, by amending Subsections (a) and (d) and adding Subsection (e), as follows:

(a) Requires the secretary of state (SOS) to conduct an audit of the elections held on the uniform election date in four counties during the previous two years immediately after the uniform election date in November of an even-numbered year.

(d) Authorizes SOS to randomly select another county with a total population of less than 300,000 to be audited if SOS completes the audit of a county under Subsection (b)(1) (relating to requiring SOS to select two counties with a total population of less than 300,000 to be audited) before the end of a two-year period.

(e) Creates this subsection from existing text.

SECTION 2. Effective date: September 1, 2023.