Honorable Larry Taylor, Chair, House Committee on Elections
FROM:
John S O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB1925 by Zedler (relating to voter registration; creating an offense.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
The provisions of the bill that are the subject of this analysis are the provisions that would deal with criminal sanctions relating to voter registration. The bill would amend the Election Code to enhance the punishment for making a false statement or requesting, commanding or attempting to induce another to make a false statement on a voter registration application, from a Class B Misdemeanor to a Class A Misdemeanor. The bill would also amend the Election Code to create the offense of unlawful application by a person who is not a United States citizen; a person would commit the offense identified in the bill if the person is not a citizen of the United States and submits an application for registration as a voter or requests, commands or attempts to induce another to submit a registration application on the person’s behalf. The offense of unlawful application by a person who is not a United States citizen would be punishable as a state jail felony.
A Class B Misdemeanor is punishable by confinement in county jail for a term not to exceed 180 days and/or a fine not to exceed $2,000. A Class A Misdemeanor is punishable by confinement in county jail for a term not to exceed one year and/or a fine not to exceed $4,000. A state jail felony is punishable by confinement in a state jail for a term from 180 days to 2 years and, in addition to confinement, an optional fine not to exceed $10,000 or Class A Misdemeanor punishment (mandatory post conviction community supervision).
Expanding the list of behaviors for which a penalty is applied for any criminal offense or increasing the penalty for any criminal offense is expected to result in increased demands upon the correctional resources of counties or of the State due to longer terms of probation, or longer terms of confinement in county jail, state jail or prison. When an offense is changed from a misdemeanor to a felony, there is a transfer of the burden of confinement of convicted offenders from the counties to the State. The impact of the bill on correctional populations would depend on how many persons would be affected by the proposed statute compared to existing statute, and whose offense would now be punished as a state jail felony as a result of the bill. In fiscal year 2010, less than 5 individuals were arrested, admitted to prison, or placed on community supervision for an offense involving a voter registration application. For this analysis, it is assumed the number of offenders convicted under this statute would not result in a significant impact on the programs and workload of state corrections agencies or on the demand for resources and services of those agencies.