HBA-CMT C.S.H.B. 1599 77(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 1599 By: Danburg Elections 4/16/2001 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE During the recent presidential election in Florida, one candidate asked for a recount in selected counties that may have given that candidate an advantage in the recount. Current Texas law allows the loser of an election to petition for a recount and select which precincts are to be recounted. C.S.H.B. 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. 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 C.S.H.B. 1599 amends the Election Code to require the manager of a central counting station (manager) 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 in each county recounted and that does not include all voting system precincts in the election. The bill requires a petition for a winning candidate in response to an opposing candidate's 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 under the provisions for preparing ballots for automatic counting and duplicating ballots for automatic counting, except as otherwise provided for recounts of ballots counted by automatic tabulating equipment. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE C.S.H.B. 1599 modifies the original bill by adding requirements to the existing provisions for the initial preparation of ballots for automatic counting and the duplication of ballots before automatic counting. The substitute adds that ballots in a election recount are to be processed in the same manner as ballots in a regular election are prepared under the existing provisions for preparing ballots for automatic counting and duplicating ballots for automatic counting, except as otherwise provided for recounts of ballots counted by automatic tabulating equipment.