BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 3078

By: Miller, Rick

Elections

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Interested parties assert that entities holding elections in some large counties, such as Harris County, have used mobile voting stations to target particular voters who might be receptive to their ballot issues, while groups opposed to those issues who request such voting equipment are often unable to secure it. As examples, the parties point to requests for election equipment to be brought to a PTA meeting when the ballot issue is about school bonds, or to a sporting event for a stadium funding issue. The parties contend that such voting procedures violate the principles behind uniformity and equality in the election process.

To be sensitive to the unique needs of counties with smaller populations, such as counties in West Texas in which the voting clerk travels to a new town each day for early voting and is set up all day, the parties suggest that restrictions on moving a temporary branch movable polling place established in a location for the purpose of early voting be imposed only in counties with a population of 400,000 or more. H.B. 3078 seeks to address the issue by imposing such restrictions.

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. 3078 amends the Election Code to require the location of a temporary branch movable polling place established for the purpose of early voting in a county with a population of 400,000 or more to be fixed at one place when the polling place opens for the day and authorizes the polling place to be relocated only after a full day of early voting has concluded.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2013.