Bill Summary – FastDemocracy

                     OFFICE OF FISCAL ANALYSIS
                           Legislative Office Building, Room 5200
                            Hartford, CT 06106  (860) 240-0200
                                  http://www.cga.ct.gov/ofa
                EMERGENCY CERTIFICATION
HB-7005
AN ACT CONCERNING A MUNICIPAL ELECTION MONITOR AT
THE 2020 STATE ELECTION AND PROCESSING OF ABSENTEE
BALLOTS FOR THE 2020 STATE ELECTION.
OFA Fiscal Note
State Impact:
         Agency Affected                     Fund-Effect           FY 21 $     FY 22 $
Secretary of the State                    FF - Cost               See Below     None
Secretary of the State                    FF - Potential Cost     See Below     None
Elections Enforcement                     GF - Potential          See Below     None
Commission                                Revenue Gain
Note: FF=Federal Funds; GF=General Fund
Municipal Impact:
         Municipalities                        Effect            FY 21 $      FY 22 $
Various Municipalities                     Potential            See Below      None
                                           Cost
Bridgeport                                 STATE                See Below     None
                                           MANDATE1
                                           - Potential
                                           Cost
Explanation
  The bill requires any municipality with a population of at least
140,000 to have an election monitor for the 2020 state election and the
Secretary of the State (SOS) to contract with such monitor until
December 31, 2020, unless such contract is terminated prior to said
1State mandate is defined in Sec. 2-32b(2) of the Connecticut General Statutes, "state
mandate" means any state initiated constitutional, statutory or executive action that
requires a local government to establish, expand or modify its activities in such a
way as to necessitate additional expenditures from local revenues.
Primary Analyst: MG                                                             9/30/20
Contributing Analyst(s):
2020HB-07005-R00-FN.DOCX                                      Page 2 of 3
date. The bill also requires such municipality to provide the monitor
with office space, supplies, equipment, and services necessary to carry
out duties and responsibilities.
   Based on the 2018 Annual Town and County Population for
Connecticut2 produced by the Department of Public Health, only
Bridgeport meets such population threshold.
   The bill requires expenses related to the services of such election
monitor to be paid from federal funds allocated to SOS to address the
effects of COVID-19 on the conduct of elections. The cost of such a
monitor is not known at this time and may be significant. The
municipality may also incur costs associated with providing said
monitor with office space, supplies, equipment, and other services.
   Additionally, a potential revenue gain may be incurred if the State
Elections Enforcement Commission levies civil penalties for certain
violations as a result of this bill.
   The bill also allows municipalities to conduct certain absentee ballot
pre-counting procedures for the November 3, 2020 state election. If a
municipality opts into such a process they must provide SOS a written
certification in which SOS must approve or disapprove such
certification and may require the appointment of additional absentee
ballot counters.
   It is anticipated that municipal costs incurred for and associated
with such pre-counting process will be supported by the Absentee
Ballot Support Grant. This grant is developed and administered by
SOS with the use of federal Coronavirus, Aid, Relief and Economic
Security (CARES) Act and Help America Vote Act (HAVA) funds
totaling approximately $1.4 million. The grant is intended to provide
municipalities with the resources necessary to process, mail out and
count absentee ballots for the 2020 state election.
2https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/Departments-and-
Agencies/DPH/Population/Town-Pop/pop_towns2018pdf.pdf
2020HB-07005-R00-FN.DOCX                                                                       Page 3 of 3
   Additionally, the bill outlines certain timeframes, deadlines,
notifications, and procedures associated with pre-counting absentee
ballots for the 2020 state election, requires municipalities opting into
the pre-counting process to perform such process at a central location,
alters certain timeframes for opening absentee ballot depository
envelopes in the event of a recanvass, alters the deadline in which an
elector who has submitted an absentee ballot can withdraw such ballot
to vote in person for the 2020 state election, and makes other technical
and conforming changes. These provisions are not anticipated to
result in a fiscal impact to the state or municipalities.
The Out Years
   The fiscal impacts identified above only apply to the 2020 state
election, thus impacts will only be incurred in FY 21.
The preceding Fiscal Impact statement is prepared for the benefit of the members of the General Assembly,
solely for the purposes of information, summarization and explanation and does not represent the intent of the
General Assembly or either chamber thereof for any purpose. In general, fiscal impacts are based upon a variety
of informational sources, including the analysts professional knowledge. Whenever applicable, agency data is
consulted as part of the analysis, however final products do not necessarily reflect an assessment from any
specific department.
Statutes affected: 
New Bill: 9-147a, 9-225, 9-150b