HBA-MSH, CMT H.B. 1819 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1819 By: Madden Elections 4/16/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Currently, Texas has 243,394 citizens serving in the United States armed forces, over 182,000 voting aged military family members, and more than 312,000 other citizens residing abroad that are eligible to vote. Citizens living abroad are often faced with contingencies that preclude normal mail delivery. The U.S. Department of Defense has made a number of recommendations to help ensure that military personnel and other citizens living abroad are able to vote in elections. They include expanding the use of the federal write-in ballot to simplify the voting process and decrease the number of ballots a voter must send. House Bill 1819 requires the secretary of state to take certain actions to expand the use of the federal write-in ballot for qualified voters living abroad. 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 1819 amends the Election Code to require the secretary of state to prescribe procedures to allow a voter to apply for and cast a state write-in ballot before the time a voter may receive a regular ballot to be voted by mail if the voter is: _a member of the merchant marine of the United States or the spouse or a dependent of a member; _domiciled in this state but temporarily living outside the territorial limits of the United States and the District of Columbia; or _unable to cast a ballot on election day or during the regular period for early voting because of a contingency that precludes normal mail delivery. The bill requires the secretary of state to prescribe procedures to allow a voter who qualifies to vote by a federal write-in absentee ballot to vote in any general, special, primary, or runoff election held in this state, including elections for federal, state, and local offices. The bill requires the secretary of state to prescribe procedures so a person who qualifies to vote by a federal write-in absentee ballot may use the transmission envelope for the absentee ballot as a request to register to vote in the election for which the absentee ballot is submitted if the envelope contains the information that is required for registration and the person submits the envelope to the early voting clerk on or before the 30th day before election day. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001.