Honorable Bryan Hughes, Chair, Senate Committee on State Affairs
FROM:
Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB2877 by Hughes (Relating to the penalty for the crime of election fraud; increasing a criminal penalty.), As Introduced
The bill would expand conduct constituting and increase penalties for the offense of election fraud. The bill would increase the base penalty for the offense from Class A misdemeanor to second degree felony, allowing for punishment at the third degree and first degree felony levels in certain circumstances. The bill would repeal the existing second degree felony offense of counting or reporting invalid votes, refusing to count valid votes, or altering a report of votes to exclude valid votes; and expand the conduct constituting the offense of election fraud to include the repealed conduct.
Expanding the conduct constituting and modifying the penalty for an existing offense may result in additional demands upon state and local correctional resources due to a possible increase in the number of individuals placed under supervision in the community or sentenced to a term of confinement.
In fiscal year 2024, there were three arrests and no referrals, placements onto adult community supervision, individuals admitted into an adult state correctional facility, or individuals admitted into a juvenile state correctional facility for the offense of election fraud. It is assumed that any impact on state correctional populations or on the demand for state correctional resources would not be significant.