House of Representatives

HB 2007

victims' rights; notification; reporting requirement

Sponsors: Representatives Jarrett: Carruthers, Gray, et al

X	Committee on Judiciary
	Caucus and COW
	As Passed the House

HB 2007 as introduced adds language to juvenile and adult criminal statute regarding notification to crime victims when the accused perpetrator is placed on home arrest and makes conforming changes to the juvenile physical abuse reporting requirement. A strike-everything amendment has been drafted for consideration. The history and provisions follow. The proposed amendment contains an appropriation clause.

History

Today in Arizona, two different vote-tabulating systems are used. One is the punch-card system, whereby a voter punches out a chad that corresponds to the candidate or issue the voter wishes to select. The other is the marksense system, which utilizes dark mark logic used by a computer to sense a mark and select the corresponding candidate or issue as the voter’s choice.

The 2000 Presidential election and ensuing controversy in Florida regarding accuracy of punch-card ballots brought the issue to the forefront of American consciousness. In his dissent in the highly-publicized case of Bush v. Gore that arose from the Florida vote count, Justice Stevens cited statistics that give an error rate of 3.92% for punch-card systems and an error rate of 1.43% for optical-scan systems.

Currently, five Arizona counties use the marksense vote tabulating system. These counties are Apache, Graham, Maricopa, Pima and Yavapai.

Provisions

· Creates a new article in Title 16 of the Arizona Revised Statutes relating to marksense optical scan systems.

· Specifies that the new article applies only to state and federal elections and only upon appropriation of monies by the Legislature and completion of the procurement process.

· Requires all county officers in charge of elections to use marksense optical scan systems once the provisions of the new article become effective.

· Defines marksense optical scan system.

· Creates the voting systems upgrade fund to be administered by the Secretary of State.

· Authorizes the Secretary of State to use its own monies and services to receive federal monies necessary to the acquisition of marksense optical scan systems. Provides that, to the extent federal monies are received for that purpose, the Secretary of State shall reimburse the state general fund (GF).

· Requires the Secretary of State to use the monies in the fund to assist county election officers in purchasing or leasing marksense optical scan systems.

· Appropriates $3.4 million from the state GF for fiscal year (FY) 2002 to the voting upgrade fund.

· Exempts the appropriation from lapsing.

· Provides that any state monies not expended after FY 2007 shall revert to the state GF.

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· 44th Legislature

· Second Regular Session 2 February 26, 2001

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