HBA-CMT H.B. 613 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 613 By: Maxey Elections 2/12/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Many Texans have access to the Internet and have grown accustomed to the 24-hour-a-day access to the information and services that the Internet provides. House Bill 613 authorizes county commissioners to decide whether a county voter registrar may accept voter registration applications on-line at a county web page, and requires the secretary of state to adopt rules and procedures to permit a county to accept these newly registered voters. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that rulemaking authority is expressly delegated to the secretary of state in SECTION 2 (Section 13.0021 Election Code) of this bill. ANALYSIS House Bill 613 amends the Election Code to authorize the commissioners court of a county to permit the submission of a voter registration application to the registrar of the county by digital transmission. The bill provides that a digital signature on a registration application submitted by digital transmission is sufficient to satisfy the requirement that the application be in writing and signed by the applicant. H.B. 613 requires the secretary of state (secretary) to adopt rules to approve technologies for submitting a registration application by digital transmission, and to approve technologies capable of creating digital signatures that are: _ unique to the person using the signature; _capable of verification; _under the sole control of the person using the signature; _linked to the registration application such that the signature is invalidated if the information in the application is changed; and _consistent with any other criteria the secretary determines necessary to ensure the validity of the signature. The secretary is required to prescribe additional procedures as necessary to implement a system for the digital transmission of registration applications and the use of digital signatures on the applications. EFFECTIVE DATE January 1, 2002.