Enrolled Bill Summary

            House Bill 1856 amends Election Code provisions relating to certain voting systems. The bill prohibits, after September 1, 2001, the acquisition or adoption of a voting system that uses a punch-card ballot or similar form of tabulating card, except for purposes of early voting by mail, but does not prohibit the use of those systems if they were adopted before that date. In an election using a punch-card ballot system, the bill provides that the order of the candidates' and propositions' punch-hole spaces and corresponding numbers on the ballot label must be the same as the order in which the candidates' names and the propositions appear on the ballot. Before the polls open, an election officer is required to check each voting device and remove any punch-card ballot chads that have accumulated. In an election using punch-card or centrally counted optical scan ballots, the undervotes and overvotes on the ballots must be tallied, tabulated, and reported by race and by election precinct in the form and manner prescribed by the secretary of state.

            The bill provides that an electronic voting system must require voters to deposit the ballots directly into a unit of automatic tabulating equipment that is programmed to return an irregularly marked ballot to the voter. The bill also requires sealed ballot boxes to be used to deliver electronic system ballots from the polling place to the central counting station. The central counting station manager is required to have the ballots examined to detect any irregularly marked ballots, determine whether the ballots to be counted automatically can be properly counted, and have each irregularly marked ballot duplicated to indicate the intent of the voter if the intent is clearly ascertainable, unless other law prohibits counting the vote.

            House Bill 1856 creates a new chapter relating to direct recording electronic voting machines. The bill requires the general custodian of election records to test each machine's logic and accuracy functions before using the machine in an election, and to conduct a recount sufficient to confirm the accuracy of the vote totals in an election in which the machines are used for the first time. During the early voting period, the voting clerk is required to conduct a daily audit of the machines to ensure proper correspondence among the numbers of ballots provided on the machines, names on the poll list, and ballots cast on the machines. The bill also requires each machine to provide a voter with a screen in summary format of the voter's choices for the voter to review before the vote is actually cast.