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.