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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Lopez

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/31/08

2/12/08 HB

SHORT TITLE Voting System Ownership and Maintenance

SB 517

ANALYST Ortiz

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

$400.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

ESTIMATED ADDITIONAL OPERATING BUDGET IMPACT (dollars in thousands)

FY08 FY09 FY10 3 Year

Total Cost

Recurring or

Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

Total

$868.6 $1,268.6

$2,137.2

Recurring General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to HB221

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Association of County Clerks (ACC)

Attorney General’s Office (AGO)

Secretary of State (SOS)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 517 appropriates $400 thousand from the GENERAL FUND to the Office of the

Secretary of State to pay for the maintenance of voting systems owned by the state.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $400 thousand contained in this bill is a RECURRING expense to the

GENERAL FUND. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FISCAL

YEAR 2009 shall revert to the GENERAL FUND.

Senate Bill 517 – Page

2

The state, according to estimates provided by the Secretary of State, would be responsible for

$1.3 million annually to cover the hardware and software warranty agreement on the voting

systems. The Secretary of State also suggests including an emergency clause in the bill, which

would allow it to cover maintenance costs that may be need for the June primary.

If the bill does not pass, counties may look to BOF for a loan.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

The Association of County Clerks explains that this bill will keep the ownership of the voting

equipment with the state, unless a county consents to ownership. The state purchased the paper

ballot tabulators in 2006 but did not provide for ownership of the equipment. As a solution, the

Secretary of State’s office issued a letter to the counties asking them to take ownership. ACC is

concerned that if the counties were to accept ownership then counties would be responsible for

annual maintenance costs amounting to more than $1 million. However, if the state retains

ownership and responsibility for maintenance, the Secretary of State may be more successful

negotiating lower maintenance costs than each individual county.

The Attorney General’s Office adds that the bill will clarify the issue of transfer of ownership

between the state and the counties.

Documents submitted by the Secretary of State indicate that there are three pieces of voting

equipment that need to be covered by maintenance agreements; the M100, which reads the paper

ballots; the Automark, which make voting ADA compliant; and the M650, which counts the

ballots. The attached spreadsheet lists by county the maintenance cost for the machines.

EO/bb