BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 2110

By: Kolkhorst

Elections

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

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.

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. 2110 amends the Election Code to make a person 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 to an opposed candidate for a party office in any precinct in which the office appears on the ballot, rather than an opposed candidate for the party office of county chair in the election.

H.B. 2110 requires each election officer in an election, following administration of the oath required at the polling place before polls open, 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.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2013.