AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT
Elections administrators face enormous pressure during an expedited special election to ensure the election is conducted properly. For an expedited special election runoff, an elections office only has 12 to 25 days to hold a runoff election after it has been called. This means an elections office must squeeze both early voting and mail ballots into a small window of time.
It takes an entire day to properly program a ballot because the elections office is required to hold a ballot drawing for candidate placement on the ballot.
S.B. 1779 eliminates the need for a second ballot drawing in order to give an elections office additional hours of time that can be critical to properly conduct an election. This would be specific and limited to an expedited election and would not affect a regularly scheduled election.
S.B. 1779 amends current law relating to the order of candidate names on a runoff expedited election ballot.
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 203.013, Election Code, by adding Subsection (h), to require that the order of the candidates' names on the runoff election ballot be the relative order of names on the original expedited election ballot.
SECTION 2. Effective date: September 1, 2015.