Fiscal Note & Local Impact Statement

127 ^th General Assembly of Ohio

Ohio Legislative Service Commission

77 South High Street, 9^th Floor, Columbus, OH 43215-6136 ² Phone: (614) 466-3615

² Internet Web Site: http://www.lsc.state.oh.us/

BILL:	S.B. 94		DATE:	May 8, 2007
STATUS:	As Introduced		SPONSOR:	Sen. D. Miller
LOCAL IMPACT STATEMENT REQUIRED:		No —	No local cost

CONTENTS:

Allows a political party to select delegates to its national presidential nominating convention, and eliminates the requirement that such delegates be directly elected at the presidential primary election

State Fiscal Highlights

STATE FUND	FY 2008	FY 2009	FUTURE YEARS
General Revenue Fund – Secretary of State
Revenues	- 0 -	- 0 -	- 0 -
Expenditures	- 0 -	- 0 -	Minor decrease in processing due to removal of delegate filing requirements, occurring once every four years during a presidential election year

Note: The state fiscal year is July 1 through June 30. For example, FY 2007 is July 1, 2006 – June 30, 2007.

· As the bill affects filing procedures once every four years, in a presidential election year, and these filings are of very small numbers, the fiscal effect on the Secretary of State will be a minor decrease in costs for processing these filings.

Local Fiscal Highlights

LOCAL GOVERNMENT		FY 2007	FY 2008	FUTURE YEARS
Counties
Revenues	- 0 -		- 0 -	- 0 -
Expenditures	- 0 -		- 0 -	Minor increase in workload occurring once every four years during a presidential election year

Note: For most local governments, the fiscal year is the calendar year. The school district fiscal year is July 1 through June 30.

· As the bill affects presidential candidacy petition signature verification at the county boards of elections once every four years, on a presidential election year, it will result in a minor increase in workload due to verification of the 1,000 signatures that a presidential candidate is required to file.

Detailed Fiscal Analysis

The bill allows a political party to select delegates to its national presidential nominating convention according to the party's constitution and bylaws. The bill also eliminates the requirement that such delegates be directly elected at the presidential primary election.

Current law

Delegate candidates seeking nomination to the national convention of their political party are required to file with the Secretary of State a declaration of candidacy and certificate. Each delegate must file a written statement of first and second choices for the presidency of the United States prior to the day of election. Additionally, presidential candidates must file a list of delegate candidates with the Secretary of State prior to the day of election.

Under the bill

The bill requires only the presidential candidate to file declaration of candidacy with the Secretary of State, but also requires a petition signed by at least 1,000 qualified electors who are members of the same political party as the candidate, the signatures of whom must be verified by the Board of Elections. The bill removes the requirement that delegate candidates file and instead allows the political party to choose delegates following the presidential primary election. Overall, the fiscal effect on the Secretary of State and Board of Elections will be negligible, as the bill mostly affects filing requirements and only during the year of a presidential election. Overall, it appears that both of the new procedures outlined in the bill would impose only minor administration costs, if any, on the Secretary of State, as well as county boards of elections.

LSC fiscal staff: Deborah Hoffman, Budget Analyst

SB0094IN/cm