BILL ANALYSIS
By: Denny
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Under current law, certain candidates are required to file a petition in connection with their application for a place on the ballot. These include independent candidates and candidates in a primary election who choose not to pay the filing fee. These petitions must include a required number of registered voter signatures. To be valid, current law requires the signatures to be accompanied, among other things, by the signers' dates of birth and voter registration numbers. State and federal court cases have recently held that petitions can require date of birth or voter registration number, but not both, for the purposes of validating the petition signatures. House Bill 1509 makes this change to codify the judicial holdings.
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 1509 amends the Election Code by providing that signatures on a petition filed in connection with a candidate for public office's application for a place on the ballot are valid if the petition includes each signer's date of birth or voter registration number, rather than date of birth and voter registration number.
EFFECTIVE DATE
September 1, 2005.