BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 273

By: Swanson

Elections

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

It has been suggested that recently enacted legislation inadvertently omitted a change corresponding with a new deadline by which balloting materials for voting by mail are required to be mailed, resulting in confusion and extra workload for election officials. C.S.H.B. 273 seeks to reduce the burden on election officials by making that change to a corresponding deadline in that process.

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

C.S.H.B. 273 amends the Election Code to change from the 45th day before election day to the 37th day before election day the deadline by which the statutory mailing date of balloting materials for early voting by mail must occur in order to trigger the exception to the requirement that those materials be mailed to the applicable voter not later than the seventh calendar day after the later of the date the clerk accepts the voter's application for a ballot to be voted by mail or the date the ballots become available for mailing.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2019.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 273 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

The substitute changes the new deadline from the 38th day before election day to the 37th day before election day.