House of Representatives

HB 2007

victims' rights; notification; reporting requirement

Sponsors: Representatives Jarrett, Carruthers, Gray et al

DPA S/E	Committee on Judiciary
DPA S/E	Committee on Appropriations
X	Caucus and COW	This bill as introduced contains an Appropriation clause.
	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.

History

Today in Arizona, two different vote-tabulating systems are used. One is the punch-card system, whereby a voter punches out 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 show an error rate of 3.92 per cent for punch-card systems and an error rate of 1.43 per cent for optical-scan systems.

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

Provisions

The Judiciary Committee adopted a strike-everything amendment. The strike-everything amendment:

· Adds hardware, software and upgrades to the equipment to be tested prior to approval for use in an election.

· Requires all tested equipment to meet or exceed the minimum requirements of the Federal Elections Commission.

· Authorizes the Secretary of State to de-certify vote tabulating equipment that does not meet the minimum requirements of the Federal Elections Commission.

· 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.

HB 2007 was amended in the Appropriations Committee with a S/E amendment identical to the Judiciary S/E.

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45th Legislature

First Regular Session 2 March 8, 2001

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