LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session
April 16, 2001
TO: Honorable Debra Danburg, Chair, House Committee on
Elections
FROM: John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE: HB1779 by Bailey (Relating to the registration of voters
at a polling place and related procedures.), As Introduced
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* Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for *
* HB1779, As Introduced: negative impact of $(1,053,139) through *
* the biennium ending August 31, 2003. *
* *
* The bill would make no appropriation but could provide the legal *
* basis for an appropriation of funds to implement the provisions of *
* the bill. *
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General Revenue-Related Funds, Five-Year Impact:
****************************************************
* Fiscal Year Probable Net Positive/(Negative) *
* Impact to General Revenue Related *
* Funds *
* 2002 $(1,053,139) *
* 2003 0 *
* 2004 (1,053,139) *
* 2005 0 *
* 2006 (1,053,139) *
****************************************************
All Funds, Five-Year Impact:
*****************************************************
* Fiscal Year Probable Savings/(Cost) from *
* General Revenue Fund *
* 0001 *
* 2002 $(1,053,139) *
* 2003 0 *
* 2004 (1,053,139) *
* 2005 0 *
* 2006 (1,053,139) *
*****************************************************
Technology Impact
None
Fiscal Analysis
The bill would provide for same-day registration, in which persons
register to vote at the polling place.
Methodology
According to the Secretary of State's Office, new supplies and procedures
would create additional costs to conduct the primary elections in
providing additional applications. There is no way of predicting how
many nonregistered voters will opt to use this procedure.
Based on 2000 numbers, there were 14,479,609 voting age persons, of whom
12,365,235 were registered, leaving 2,114,374 non-registered.
The Secretary of State's Office advises that polling place expenses for
the primaries would include additional combination forms that would be
necessary to process voters separately. Also, although it is unlikely
many voters would use the "affidavit of voter's acquaintance" procedure,
each polling place would need to be equipped with at least one such
affidavit.
If one-third of the nonregistered voters voted in a statewide primary
election using 2000 numbers for combination forms (the combination form
costs 25 cents (Hart Graphics) and handles 15 voters), and each primary
polling place prepared "acquaintance affidavits" for that many voters,
the impact would be as follows:
(2,114,374 divided by 3 equals 704,791 voters) x ($.01 per voter for
combination forms) equals $7,047.91.
(2,114,374 divided by 3 equals 704,791 voters) x ($.01 per acquaintance
affidavit) equals $7,047.91
Supplies Total = $14,095.82
Voters must be processed separately, therefore polling places will likely
need additional staff. Based on a grand total of 16,813 polling places
used in 2000 (10,648 primary) + (6,165 runoff), if one extra clerk is
hired for a minimum of 12 hours, the impact would be:
16,813 polling places x (12 hours x $5.15/hour for 1 clerk) equals
Personnel total of $1,039,043.40
$14,095.82 in supplies plus $1,039,043.40 personnel costs equals a
Total of $1,053,139.20
Local Government Impact
Election officials in Denton County, Travis County, Victoria County, and
Bexar County, as well as representatives from the Texas Association of
Election Administrators and the Texas Association of Counties were
contacted regarding fiscal impact to local governments.
Counties and associations contacted indicated that counties would need to
hire additional staff for each election in order to implement the
provisions of the bill. The counties also anticipated that election staff
would have to work overtime for each election. Election officials stated
that half of their election costs are staff salaries and there was
general agreement that they would have to double their staff, plus
provide training. Cost for doubling staff and training new employees was
estimated to range from an additional $5,000 per election in Victoria
County (population approximately 89,000) to an additional $500,000 per
election in Harris County (population 3.2 million).
Election administrators and county clerks also said there would be an
additional cost of anywhere from $3,000 in small counties to $80,000 in
large counties to provide additional ballots for each county-wide
election.
Additional costs to counties to implement the requirements in the bill
would be significant, ranging from at least $8,000 to $580,000 or more
per election.
Source Agencies: 307 Secretary of State
LBB Staff: JK, TB, SK, DB