AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

 

There are increasing concerns that partisanship at polling places by election judges and clerks is rampant in Texas despite laws against electioneering within a certain distance of the polls, and interested parties maintain that poll workers electioneer by decorating their name tags. The parties are also concerned that a person may serve as an election judge or clerk if the citizen is employed by or related to someone on the ballot even though a person is prohibited from being an election judge or clerk if the person is related to the county chair for either party. The parties assert that these situations reflect a trend toward partisan electioneering at the polling place by poll workers. H.B. 2110 seeks to address these issues through revised eligibility requirements for an election judge or clerk and through the issuance of identification badges in a form prescribed by the secretary of state.

 

H.B. 2110 amends current law relating to requirements for certain election officers.

 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

 

This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency.

 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

 

SECTION 1.  Amends Section 32.054(a), Election Code, to provide that a person is ineligible to serve as an election judge or clerk in an election if the person is employed by or related within the second degree by consanguinity or affinity, as determined under Chapter 573 (Degrees of Relationship; Nepotism Prohibitions), Government Code, to an opposed candidate for a public office or a party office in any precinct in which the office appears on the ballot, rather than for an opposed candidate for a public office or the party office of county chair in the election.

 

SECTION 2.  Amends the heading to Section 62.003, Election Code, to read as follows:

 

Sec. 62.003.  ELECTION OFFICERS: OATH AND IDENTIFICATION.

 

SECTION 3.  Amends Section 62.003, Election Code, by adding Subsection (c), to require each election officer, following administration of the oath, to be issued a form of identification, prescribed by the secretary of state, to be displayed by the officer during the officer's hours of service at the polling place.

 

SECTION 4.  Effective date: September 1, 2013.