JLM H.B. 2262 75(R) BILL ANALYSIS PUBLIC EDUCATION H.B. 2262 By: Smith 5-1-97 Committee Report (Unamended) BACKGROUND Under current law, the deadline for the declaration of a write-in candidacy in a city-wide election is the 45th day before the election. However, the deadline for the declaration of a write-in candidacy in a school board election is the 30th day before the election; a 15 day discrepancy as compared to city elections. This 15 day difference becomes a problem when a city or district is attempting to prepare a joint ballot which contains the races of both city wide offices and school board positions. Due to Section 2.052 of the Election Code which states that a race cannot be certified as "unopposed" until the deadline for declaring a write-in candidacy has passed, the city cannot be certain of the unopposed status of a school board race before the 30th day before an election. This delay makes it unnecessarily difficult to prepare joint ballots and prepare for joint elections. In short, the "unopposed" status of a school board race is left in question too long to conveniently and efficiently prepare joint ballots due simply to the difference between the school board and city wide deadlines. PURPOSE This bill proposes to amend the deadline by which a candidate running in a school board election must declare their intention to run as a write-in candidate to 45 days before the election. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 11.056(b) of the Education Code by striking the word "30th" and inserting the word "45th", thereby changing the day on which a candidate must file declaration of write-in candidacy. As well, a conforming amendment is incorporated in this section which allows the deadline for write-in candidacy to be extended to the 42nd day before an election if a candidate whose name appears on the ballot is declared ineligible or dies after the 48th day of the election. SECTION 2. Effective date.