H.B. 2636 78(R) BILL ANALYSIS H.B. 2636 By: Madden Elections Committee Report (Unamended) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Under current law, military personnel and their dependents living abroad may apply to vote early by mail. If the early voting clerk determines that if the application is incomplete, the clerk is required to notify the applicant of that fact. Notifying these citizens by mail can be quite slow, and the delay caused by sending notices overseas or to remote military posts can cause the applicant to miss the deadline for applying to receive a ballot. As recently as the 2000 Presidential election, military and overseas requests for ballots were rejected for failure to comply with some minor requirements on the applications. House Bill 2636 would provide for more timely notification by authorizing the early voting clerk to notify these applicants by e-mail or telephone of any missing information from applications, if the applicant has provided an e-mail address or telephone number on the application. 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. ANALYSIS House Bill 2636 amends the Election Code by requiring, if a qualified uniformed or overseas citizen who applies for early voting by mail has provided a telephone number or an address for receiving mail over the Internet, the early voting clerk to notify the applicant by that medium of any information that the application does not contain that is required for registration. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2003.