Division of the Budget
Landon State Office Building Phone: (785) 296-2436
900 SW Jackson Street, Room 504 adam.c.proffitt@ks.gov
Topeka, KS 66612 Division of the Budget http://budget.kansas.gov
Adam Proffitt, Director Laura Kelly, Governor

February 19, 2021


The Honorable Blake Carpenter, Chairperson
House Committee on Elections
Statehouse, Room 149C-S
Topeka, Kansas 66612
Dear Representative Carpenter:
SUBJECT: Fiscal Note for HB 2334 by Representative Toplikar
In accordance with KSA 75-3715a, the following fiscal note concerning HB 2334 is
respectfully submitted to your committee.
HB 2334 would amend existing law concerning electronic voting machines and recounts
of results generated by such machines. The bill would require recount requests to be made in
writing with the Secretary of State no later than 5:00 p.m. on the second Friday following an
election. The request would include that media storage devices and voting machines be operated
together to generate hard copies of election results on the day of the election. The bill would allow
the person requesting the recount to be present during the recount and a copy of the election results
generated during the recount must be provided to the person requesting the recount. The recount
would be conducted under the supervision of the county election officer at the direction of the
Secretary of State and must be initiated no later than the day following the request, including
Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. The bill would allow the voting machines to be unsealed and
opened by county election officers without first obtaining a court order for an inspection of the
machines. The counties would bear the cost of the recount.
In addition, enactment of HB 2334 would require any voting machine vendor to certify in
writing that the system cannot be connected to the internet or to any other computer network,
including any local area network, or any wireless communications network, including any cellular
transmission network. The Secretary of State and the county election officer would inspect the
system to verify its compliance with this requirement.
Estimated State Fiscal Effect
FY 2021 FY 2021 FY 2022 FY 2022
SGF All Funds SGF All Funds
Revenue -- -- -- --
Expenditure $50,000 $50,000 $100,000 $100,000
FTE Pos. -- -- -- --
The Honorable Blake Carpenter, Chairperson
Page 2—HB 2334

According to the Secretary of State, enactment of HB 2334 would result in expenditures of
approximately $50,000 in FY 2021 and $100,000 in FY 2022 and in future years, all from the State
General Fund. The bill would require the agency to independently certify that each voting system
is in compliance with the provisions of the law requiring voting systems to have no capability to
connect to the internet. The Secretary of State’s office does not have an employee with this
specialized skill set and would be required to contract with an outside specialist who is
knowledgeable about the inner workings of voting equipment. The agency estimates this would
cost approximately $25,000 per voting machine certification. Currently, there are two to four
voting machine certifications conducted each fiscal year. In addition, the agency would need to
update training and education materials for county election officers, candidates, political parties
and voters concerning the new recount provisions. These updates could be conducted using
existing resources. Any fiscal effect associated with HB 2334 is not reflected in The FY 2022
Governor’s Budget Report.
The Secretary of State indicates that enactment of the bill would also have a fiscal effect
on county election office budgets as recounts could be conducted on Saturdays, Sundays and
holidays resulting in weekend or holiday pay. Currently, the person submitting a request for a
recount submits a bond to cover the cost of the recount. The bond is returned to the requester if
the election outcome is changed. Otherwise, the bond pays for the cost of the recount. HB 2334
would require county election offices to pay for the cost of the recount and that cost would depend
on a number of factors including the number of ballots to be counted, the method of counting
ballots and the number of board workers needed to count the ballots. Previous recount estimates
have ranged from a few hundred dollars to over $10,000, depending on these factors.
The Kansas Association of Counties indicates that enactment of HB 2334 would likely
have a fiscal effect on counties as they would bear the cost of a recount, even if the recount is in
an election that is not particularly close. This could trigger numerous candidates requesting
recounts, even in elections in which the final result would not change. The Association is unable,
however, to estimate what the fiscal effect might be.


Sincerely,

Adam Proffitt
Director of the Budget

cc: Jay Hall, Association of Counties
Sandy Tompkins, Office of the Secretary of State


Statutes affected:
As introduced: 25-3107, 25-4406