HBA-CMT H.B. 1599 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1599 By: Danburg Elections 7/18/2001 Enrolled BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE During the 2000 presidential election in Florida, one candidate asked for a recount in selected counties that may have given that candidate an advantage in the recount. Previous Texas law allowed only the loser of an election to petition for a recount and select which precincts were to be recounted. House Bill 1599 allows the winning candidate to also select precincts for recount if an election recount petition is approved and sets forth provisions for the automatic counting of ballots, both initially and in a recount and establishes provisions for automatic recounts in elections that result in a tie. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS House Bill 1599 amends the Election Code to require an automatic recount to be conducted in an election that results in a tie vote before a second election is held if the tie vote is not resolved by the tying candidates agreeing to cast lots to resolve the tie. If the recount resolves the tie, a second election is not held. No later than the fifth day after the date the automatic recount is completed or the final canvass following the automatic recount is completed, the authority responsible for ordering the first election is required to order the second election if applicable. The bill requires the designated canvassing authority to request the automatic recount in the same manner as a recount petitioner for purposes of initiating a automatic recount. The bill sets forth that the method for counting votes in an automatic recount is the same method of counting used in the election that resulted in the tie vote. The bill exempts an automatic recount from the required deposit to cover the costs of a recount, and requires the costs of an automatic recount to be paid by each political subdivision or county executive committee served by a presiding officer designated for the general supervision of a recount. The bill requires the manager of a central counting station in preparing ballots for automatic counting to have the ballots examined to detect any irregularly marked ballots and to determine whether the ballots to be counted automatically are ready for counting and can be properly counted. The manager is required to have each irregularly marked ballot duplicated to indicate the intent of the voter if the voter's intent is clearly ascertainable unless other law prohibits counting the vote. The bill requires the manager to approve the ballots for counting after making the appropriate determinations and taking the appropriate actions. The bill authorizes a candidate shown to be nominated or elected to an office in an election for which there is a final canvass at the state level to obtain an initial recount if an opposing candidate's initial recount petition is approved for a recount that is required to include all the election precincts in which a particular voting system is used but that does not include all voting system precincts in the election. The bill requires a recount petition for a winning candidate in response to an opposing candidate's recount petition to be submitted no later than 48 hours after receipt of the notice of approval for a recount. The bill requires ballots in an election recount to be processed in the same manner as regular ballots are prepared and duplicated for automatic counting, except as otherwise provided for recounts of ballots counted by automatic tabulating equipment. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001.