| TO: | Honorable Will Hartnett, Chair, House Committee on Judiciary |
| FROM: | John S. O'Brien, Deputy Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | HB1271 by Bohac (Relating to the voter registration of certain persons disqualified from jury service.), As Introduced |
The bill would require that if a written summons for jury duty allows a person to sign and return the form claiming a disqualification or exemption, that a claim related to lack of citizenship or residence in the county could result in the person losing eligibility to vote in the county.
Additionally, the bill would require court clerks to maintain a list containing the name and address of each person who is excused or disqualified from jury duty because of citizenship or residence and on the third business day of each month to send a copy of the list to the county voter registrar. The voter registrar would be required to maintain a suspense list containing the names submitted by the court clerk. The bill would take effect September 1, 2005.
A sampling of county clerks, district clerks, and voter registrars was contacted regarding the fiscal impact of the bill. Implementation of the provisions of the bill would require that a county that allows a written request for exemption or disqualification from jury duty to change and print new forms. Responses indicated that the costs associated with new forms and with the monthly procedures would be insignificant. Several counties indicated that the court clerks already send copies of the written cards that claim residence exemptions to the registrar. Harris County, in which approximately 49,000 jurors are excused from jury service each year due to citizenship or residence, estimates the county would incur one-time costs in the first year of implementation of $4,500 for database programming and annual costs the first and each succeeding year of $35,660 to $38,888 for an increase in the number of full-time-equivalent positions and administrative duties.
Costs would vary by county, but are anticipated to be insignificant.
| Source Agencies: |
| LBB Staff: | JOB, DLBa
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