LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
                              Austin, Texas
                                     
                    FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session
  
                              April 8, 2001
  
  
          TO:  Honorable Senfronia Thompson, Chair, House Committee on
               Judicial Affairs
  
        FROM:  John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
  
       IN RE:  HB2884  by Gallego (Relating to cross-filing with more
               than one political party by candidates for certain
               judicial offices.), As Introduced
  
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*  No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.        *
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Local Government Impact
  
Travis, Victoria Guadalupe, Bexar Counties and the Texas Association of
Election Administrators indicated that the bill could have a significant
financial impact on units of local government.  Currently, computer
systems used during elections do not recognize candidate names appearing
more than once.  There may be substantial programming costs given the
complexity of listing an individual multiple times on one ballot and then
requiring the program to combine votes into a single total. The cost
incurred by vendors would be passed on to units of local government.

According to local officials, the Secretary of State must certify new or
modified computer systems used in elections. After additional programming
is complete, vendors designing and maintaining these systems may be
required to recertify the systems, and pass the additional cost on to
local governments.
  
  
Source Agencies:   356   Texas Ethics Commission, 307   Secretary of
                   State
LBB Staff:         JK, TB, SK, DW