BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 1570

By: Murphy

Elections

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Under current eligibility requirements for service as a volunteer deputy voter registrar, a person must be at least 18 years of age and not have been finally convicted of a felony or, if so convicted, must have either fully discharged the person's sentence or been pardoned. H.B. 1570 requires a regular or volunteer deputy voter registrar to complete a training program before being allowed to register voters. This requirement ensures that a deputy voter registrar has the knowledge to perform the required duties and increases efficiency in county clerks' offices by relieving the county clerks of some of the time and paperwork involved in processing voter registration applications. 

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

H.B. 1570 amends the Election Code to require the secretary of state, not later than January 1, 2012, to adopt standards of training for deputy voter registrars in election law relating to the registration of voters, develop materials for a standardized curriculum for that training, and distribute the materials as necessary to each county voter registrar. The bill authorizes the training standards to include the passage of an examination at the end of a training program.

H.B. 1570 prohibits a regular deputy voter registrar from assisting in the registration of voters and prohibits a volunteer deputy voter registrar from receiving another person's voter registration application until the regular or volunteer deputy registrar has completed required training. The bill requires the voter registrar, at the time of a deputy registrar's appointment, to provide information about the times and places at which training is offered. The bill makes its provisions applicable only to a deputy voter registrar appointed on or after the date the secretary of state adopts training standards in accordance with the provisions of the bill.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2011.