SB 1387 (Creighton/Clardy) would specify that for a voting system or voting system equipment to be approved for use in elections, the system in which the equipment was designed to be used would have to be manufactured, stored, and held in the United States and sold by a company whose headquarters and parent company’s headquarters, if applicable, were located in the United States. This requirement would apply beginning September 1, 2021. The bill was sent to the Governor on 5/27.
SB 598 (Kolkhorst/Jetton) requires risk-limiting audits of election results and paper audit trails. The bill was sent to the Governor on 6/1.
SB 23 (Huffman/Oliverson) requires certain counties to hold elections before reducing the funding of a county’s primary law enforcement agency or reallocating funds to different law enforcement agencies. The bill was sent to the Governor on 6/1.
HB 3920 (Dean/Hughes) allows qualified voters to vote early by mail under certain circumstances. Those circumstances include sickness or a physical condition that prevents the voter from appearing at the polling place on election day without a likelihood of needing personal assistance or of injuring the voter’s health to vote early by mail, including a voter who is expected to give birth within three weeks before or after election day. Items that do NOT constitute sufficient cause include: a lack of transportation, a sickness that does not prevent the voter from appearing, and a requirement to go to work. The bill was sent to the Governor on 5/29.
HB 3107 (Clardy/Zaffirini) amends current law relating to election practices and procedures. The bill makes technical corrections to the law regarding various aspects of the process, including voter registration; officers and observers; supplies; early voting; rules relating to candidates, presidential elections, and elections to fill vacant offices; recounts; and other miscellaneous provisions to clarify election practices and procedures. The bill was sent to the Governor on 6/01.
HB 1382 (Bucy/Hughes) requires the secretary of state to provide to each early voting clerk an online tool that enabled a person who submitted an application for a ballot to vote by mail to track the location and status of the application and ballot on the websites of the secretary and, if applicable, the county. An amendment by the Senate requires for each election there be a record of each application for a ballot by mail received by the clerk, each carrier envelope sent by the clerk which must be assigned a serially numbered and sequentially issued barcode or tracking number unique to each envelope. The bill was sent to the Governor on 5/26.
HB 1128 (Jetton/Kolkhorst) specifies that certain persons could be lawfully present in a polling place, the meeting place of an early voting ballot board, or a central counting station during certain periods. The bill was sent to the Governor on 5/25.
HB 574 (Bonnen/Taylor) makes it a second-degree felony (two to 20 years in prison and an optional fine of up to $10,000) for a person to knowingly or intentionally make any effort to count invalid votes, fail to count valid votes, alter a report to include invalid votes, or alter a report to exclude valid votes.