BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 1779

By: Menéndez

Elections

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Interested parties note that elections administrators face enormous pressure during an expedited special election to ensure the election is conducted properly. For instance, an elections office has a very limited number of days after an expedited special election runoff has been called within which the office must hold that election, requiring the office to squeeze both early voting and processing mail ballots into a small window of time. The parties also note that 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 seeks to provide an elections office with additional time to properly conduct certain elections by eliminating the time consuming process otherwise required for a second ballot drawing for a runoff election.

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

S.B. 1779 amends the Election Code to require the order of the candidates' names on a runoff election ballot to be the relative order of names on the original expedited election ballot.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2015.