LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
                              Austin, Texas
                                     
                    FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session
  
                              March 20, 2001
  
  
          TO:  Honorable Debra Danburg, Chair, House Committee on
               Elections
  
        FROM:  John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
  
       IN RE:  HB2924  by Jones, Jesse (Relating to the preparation of
               electronic voting system ballots for automatic
               counting.), As Introduced
  
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*  No fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.                    *
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Local Government Impact
  
The bill would require election officials to examine electronic voting
system ballots for irregular marks prior to conducting an automatic
ballot count. A sampling of election administrators and county clerks
were surveyed regarding the fiscal impact of the provisions of the bill.
Their responses indicate that electronic equipment currently being used
automatically rejects ballots that are defective.  If election officials
are required to manually examine all ballots before submitting them for
automatic counting, election costs would be increased by 14 to 20
percent.
  
  
Source Agencies:   307   Secretary of State
LBB Staff:         JK, TB, SK, DB