BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 3110

By: Rodriguez, Eddie

Elections

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Interested parties contend that there is a need to revise statutory requirements relating to the list of candidates a county or state chair provides to the secretary of state. In particular, the parties assert that some county chairs submit the certified list of candidates on paper, which the parties consider cumbersome and inefficient. H.B. 3110 seeks to revise requirements relating to this list, among other related provisions.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

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. 3110 amends the Election Code to require an application for a place on the ballot from a candidate for public office to include, among other required elements, a mailing address and any available electronic mail address at which the candidate receives correspondence relating to the candidate's campaign and, if the candidate maintains a campaign-related website, the website address.

H.B. 3110 requires a state chair and each county chair of a political party nominating candidates by primary election or by convention to submit electronically, among other information, the name of each candidate who is certified by a state chair or by the presiding officer of a political party convention, as the name is to appear on the ballot, and the candidate's campaign mailing address and any electronic mail address shown on the candidate's application for a place on the ballot.

H.B. 3110 requires the secretary of state, in addition to archiving and keeping available for inspection a list of all candidates for whom information has been submitted, to publicly display such list and, in addition to prescribing rules for the electronic submission of such lists, to prescribe rules for the maintenance and accessibility of information pertaining to candidates to enable an entity responsible for printing the ballot for a general primary election, runoff primary election, or general election to use the list to create and print the ballots. The bill removes a statutory provision requiring the secretary of state to prescribe rules for the methodology for distribution of the information to each county clerk and state chair.

H.B. 3110 requires a state chair and each county chair of a political party nominating candidates by primary election to submit electronically to the secretary of state the names of the candidates certified as winning the general primary election, the names of the candidates that will appear on the runoff primary election ballot, and the names of the candidates certified as winning the runoff primary election.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2015.