BILL ANALYSIS |
C.S.H.B. 148 |
By: Burkett |
Elections |
Committee Report (Substituted) |
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
In certain localities, individuals receive compensation for harvesting mail-in ballots or for going door to door collecting eligible ballots and posting them on behalf of voters. Such individuals are compensated on a per-ballot basis. There currently is no limit on the number of times a person may act as a courier for mail-in ballots in a given election, and concerned parties contend that some mail-in ballot harvesters provide unlawful assistance or unlawful witness to voters and may even electioneer in the presence of an active ballot. C.S.H.B. 148 seeks to remedy this situation by, among other provisions, increasing the penalties for certain related offenses.
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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.
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ANALYSIS
C.S.H.B. 148 amends the Election Code to prohibit a person who possesses an official carrier envelope containing a marked ballot in order to deposit the envelope in the mail or with a common or contract carrier and who provides the identifying information required for such a person from depositing in the mail or with a common or contract carrier more than 10 carrier envelopes containing ballots voted by other persons in an election, unless a carrier envelope contains a ballot voted by a member of the U.S. military or the spouse or dependent of such a member. The bill makes it a Class A misdemeanor offense to knowingly violate this prohibition or to knowingly direct a person to engage in such conduct. The bill increases from a Class B misdemeanor to a Class A misdemeanor the penalty for acting as a witness for a voter in signing a carrier envelope certificate and knowingly violating requirements applicable to such signing and for a person other than the voter depositing the carrier envelope in the mail or with a common or contract carrier without the person's signature, printed name, and residence on the envelope's reverse side.
C.S.H.B. 148 exempts an employee of a state licensed care facility or state-certified facility not subject to state licensure where a voter resides who is working in the normal course of the employee's authorized duties from the application of offenses relating to the deposit of a carrier envelope without the required information on the envelope's reverse side or to the deposit in the mail or with a common or contract carrier of more than 10 such envelopes containing ballots voted by other persons in the election and from the application of an offense for possessing an official ballot or official carrier envelope provided to another person. The bill establishes that it is an affirmative defense to prosecution under these provisions that a person deposited carrier envelopes containing ballots voted by another person or possessed an official ballot or official carrier envelope provided to a voter if the voter requested assistance from the person in depositing the envelope and that assistance was provided in the course of the person's normal duties as caretaker of the voter.
C.S.H.B 148 makes it a misdemeanor offense to compensate another person to engage in the conduct prohibited by the bill relating to the limitation on depositing carrier envelopes containing ballots voted by other persons and makes such offense punishable by confinement in jail for a term of not more than one year or less than 30 days or such confinement and a fine not to exceed $4,000. The bill enhances the offense from a misdemeanor to a state jail felony if it is shown on the trial of such an offense that the defendant was previously convicted two or more times for the same conduct.
C.S.H.B. 148 removes the exemption from the application of offenses relating to actions on a carrier envelope by a person other than the voter and the exemption from the application of an offense for knowingly failing, in assisting a voter in preparing a ballot to be voted by mail, to enter the person's signature, printed name, and residence address on the voter's carrier envelope for a person registered to vote at the same address as a person applying for a ballot to be voted by mail.
C.S.H.B. 148 includes the limitation on depositing carrier envelopes containing ballots voted by other persons established under the bill's provisions to the textual material required to be printed on the reverse side of an official carrier envelope.
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EFFECTIVE DATE
September 1, 2013.
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COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE
While C.S.H.B. 148 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following comparison is organized and highlighted in a manner that indicates the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.
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