TO:	Honorable Briscoe Cain, Chair, House Committee on Elections
FROM:	Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	HB4459 by Swanson (relating to voting system equipment; creating a criminal offense.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted

The bill would amend the Election Code as it relates to voting system equipment. Among other provisions, the bill would prohibit voting systems ballots from being arranged in a manner that allows a political party's candidates to be selected in one motion or gesture and would make it a state jail felony to violate that prohibition. This analysis assumes that any related costs could be absorbed using existing resources and that the provisions of the bill would not result in a significant impact on the demand for state correctional resources. 

Local Government Impact

Hays County anticipates a fiscal impact of $100,000 if the county is required to replace its electronic poll books. 

Fort Bend County does not anticipate a fiscal impact, but the county had planned to move to cloud storage of voter registration data to provide redundancy and eliminate the need to upgrade and maintain servers; the bill would prohibit that. 

Tarrant County anticipates a fiscal impact of $1 million in the event that the county is required to replace its electronic poll books. 

Williamson County anticipates a $400,000 fiscal impact. 

Brazoria County does not anticipate a fiscal impact.