BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 453

By: Schofield

Elections

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Under current law, certain public buildings, including public schools, are required to be made available for use as a polling place in an election. Despite the law, some school districts have threatened to withhold permission to use their schools as polling places on the grounds that doing so poses a safety concern for students. H.B. 453 seeks to establish a disincentive for a school district that declines to make its building available as a polling location.

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. 453 amends the Election Code to prohibit a public school district that owns or controls a building selected for a polling place and fails to make the building available for use as such in any election that covers territory in which the building is located from designating that building as a polling place for an election for the district's board of trustees or for a district bond election until after the fifth anniversary of the date of the election in which the district failed to make the building available.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2023.