81st Texas Legislature, Pre-Filing, Day 1: Election Law & Redistricting Legislation

Legislation that would allow same-day voter registration in Texas has been pre-filed in anticipation of the start of the 81st Session of the Texas Legislature in January along with–as expected–more Voter ID legislation and legislation to create a non-partisan Redistricting Commission and bills to limit political contributions.

Here is a rundown of election and redistricting related legislation:

SB 142 by State Sen. Rodney Ellis (D-Houston): This legislation would prohibit the Secretary of State from publicly supporting or endorsing a candidate for public office or a measure such as a constitutional amendment, but doesn’t prohibit the SoS from giving political contributions. This is a good bill given all the shilling that Secretary of States have done under the Perry Administration, but I look for the Bill Analysis to raise some questions on whether or not it is constitutional.  One part of it which would be constitutional is a “revolving door” provision related to voting system manufacturers:

The secretary of state may not solicit or accept employment from a person who manufactures or markets voting system equipment or software necessary for the operation of a voting system before the second anniversary of the date on which the secretary of state’s service ends.

SB 143 by State Sen. Rodney Ellis (D-Houston): this legislation would establish a $100,000 per-person limit on contributions to legislative, state board of education, and statewide canididates per election cycle as well as PACs and political parties. We’re not really a fan of contribution limits, because they would hurt Democrats as much as Republicans, but this is a better bill than limits that other states have, which are far lower limits. SB 246 by State Sen. Elliot Shapleigh (D-El Paso) is nearly identical. HB 105 by Mark Strama (D-Austin) has far more strict limits:

(b)  The contribution limits are:
(1)  for a statewide office, $2,000;
(2)  for the office of state senator, $1,000;
(3)  for the office of state representative, $500; or
(4)  for the office of member, State Board of Education, $1,500.

Those relate, however, only to personal contributions. The bill also has a cap on spending per race:
(1)  for a statewide office, $5 million;
(2)  for the office of state senator, $1 million;
(3)  for the office of state representative, $500,000;
(4)  for the office of member, State Board of Education, $1 million.

I may be the only progressive who things campaign finance reform isn’t for Texas, but I doubt I’m the only person who thinks those limits are beyond unrealistic. You can barely run a state representative race in some districts for half a million, and you cannot run a State Senate race for a million effectively because of the price of television in some markets. What this would amount to is smaller campaigns with less of a connection with voters and a less informed electorate.

HB 27 by State Rep. David Leibowitz (D-San Antonio): This legislation will allow a county to hold a non-binding referendum election related to any fiscal matter aside from labor agreements and the salaries of county officials. County officials already have a process in place to grieve their salaries which can include a citizen grievance committee or a committee made up of citizens and other county officials, which is prescribed in the Local Government Code.

TX HB 113 by State Rep. Aaron Pena (D-Edinburg): This legislation would require that anyone hired by a county to serve as an elections administrator hold a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university. This is probably a good idea (and, no doubt, in direct response to some very cozy and oftentimes familial relationships between elections administrators and candidates on the ballot in the Rio Grande Valley. One problem this may cause is that there will be a disparity between counties that hire elections administrators and those who do not and have the County Clerk (or Tax Assessor) perform that activity. In principle it is an exellent idea but may create a a constitutional problem given that an Elections Administrator may just be the county clerk in some counties and the constitution doesn’t prescribe that as a qualification.

HB 125 by State Rep. Betty Brown (R-Terrell): This is essentially the same Voter ID bill that was filed last session. It’s garbage.

HB 129 by State Rep. Roland Gutierrez (D-San Antonio): This bill requires that the Texas Insurance Commissioner be an elective official; not only an election law but a great consumer protection measure.

HB 135 by State Rep. Joe Straus (D-San Antonio): An idiotic piece of legislation to eleminate straight party voting. While Republicans may want to eleminate it after the disaster they had in Harris County last week, the removal of the option to vote a straight party ticket could in turn cost Republicans East and West Texas. Thus, this Catch-22 will go nowhere. We predict it won’t get out of committee.

SB 118 by State Sen. Rodney Ellis (D-Houston): This bill would provide for same-day voter registration during early voting by personal appearance. State Rep. Norma Chavez (D-El Paso) has a similar bill, HB 157, but we can’t tell if it is for early voting registration or election day registration; the text isn’t up yet. It may be more similar to SB 140, also by Ellis, which provides for same-day voter registration on election day.

HJR 19 by State Rep. Mark Strama (D-Austin) provides for a constitutional amendment which would create a non-partisan Redistricting Commission. Its membership makeup would be as follows:

(b)  The commission consists of seven members selected as follows:
(1)  one member appointed by the member of the Texas Senate with the most seniority, as defined by senate rules;
(2)  one member appointed by the member of the Texas Senate with the most seniority, as defined by senate rules, who is of a different political party than the member described by
Subdivision (1) of this section;

(3)  one member appointed by the member of the Texas House of Representatives with the most seniority, as defined by house rules;
(4)  one member appointed by the member of the Texas House of Representatives with the most seniority, as defined by house rules, who is of a different political party than the member described by Subdivision (3) of this section;
(5)  one member appointed by an affirmative vote of not fewer than three of the members of the commission selected under Subdivisions (1) through (4) of this subsection; and
(6)  two members appointed by the member appointed under Subdivision (5) of this subsection, who must be retired federal judges appointed to the federal bench by presidents of different political parties.

SB 92 by State Sen. Leticia Van De Putte (D-San Antonio): This legislation would create an electronic mail ballot program for military personnel serving overseas.

SB 137 by State Sen. Rodney Ellis (D-Houston): This legislation modifies the requirements for voting early by mail, cleans up some out-dated language, and appears to actually allow anyone to request a ballot by mail:

SB 138 by State Sen. Rodney Ellis (D-Houston): This legislation would make any election day, including primary elections, state holidays. It would appear that this legislation would essentially make any election held throughout the state a state holiday. One would presume this would include run-off elections and special elections which are statewide.

SB 139 by State Sen. Rodney Ellis (D-Houston): This legislation would make various election and voter registration practices criminal offenses. On the registration and voting side, the following would become criminalized acts (State Jail Felonies, to be specific):

(1)  removes the name of an eligible voter from the list of registered voters or the poll list for the precinct;
(2)  refuses to accept for voting a person whose acceptance is required by this code; or
(3)  prevents the deposit in the ballot box of a marked and properly folded ballot that was provided at the polling place to the voter who is depositing it or for whom the deposit is attempted.

The following would be considered deceptive elections practices and would be Class B misdemeanors:

DECEPTIVE ELECTION PRACTICES PROHIBITED. A person may not knowingly deceive another person regarding:
(1)  the time, place, or manner of conducting an election in this state; or
(2)  the qualifications for or restrictions governing voter eligibility for an election in this state.
Sec. 61.062.  CRIMINAL OFFENSE.  (a)  A person commits an offense if the person violates Section 61.061 with the intent to prevent another person from:
(1)  voting in an election; or
(2)  casting a ballot that may legally be counted.

SB 141 By State Sen. Rodney Ellis (D-Houston): This legislation would restore the voting rights of felons who are no longer incarcerated. Previously, it was required that those convicted of felonies had to wait until their term of community supervision or parole was over before their voting rights were restored. This appears to restore the voting rights of any felon post-conviction so long as they aren’t incarcerated. The legislation also takes some steps to make sure that incarcerated felons aren’t allowed to vote; the language of that section, which requires weekly reports on who is confined in TDCJ prisons to the Secretary of State also appears it would aide in the reinstatement of voting rights for non-incercarated persons.

SB 245 by State Rep. Elliot Shapleigh (D-El Paso): This bill relates to Direct Recording Electronic voting systems (DREs). It mandates some significant testing and security measures, and mandates a paper trail and requires that, in all cases except a recount, the electronic vote tally is the official tally.

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