Fiscal impact reports (FIRs) are prepared by the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) for standing finance
committees of the NM Legislature. The LFC does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of these reports
if they are used for other purposes.
Current FIRs (in HTML & Adobe PDF formats) are a vailable on the NM Legislative Website (legis.state.nm.us).
Adobe PDF versions include all attachments, whereas HTML versions may not. Previously issued FIRs and
attachments may be obtained from the LFC in Suite 101 of the State Capitol Building North.
F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T
SPONSOR Fox-Young
ORIGINAL DATE
LAST UPDATED
2/20/07
HB 627
SHORT TITLE Certain Ballots on Colored Paper
SB
ANALYST Ortiz
ESTIMATED ADDITIONAL OPERATING BUDGET IMPACT (dollars in thousands)
FY07
FY08
FY09 3 Year
Total Cost
Recurring
or Non-Rec
Fund
Affected
Total
$0.1
$0.1
$0.1 Recurring General
Fund
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
LFC Files
Responses Received From
Administrative Office of the District Attorneys (AODA)
Secretary of State
SUMMARY
Synopsis of Bill
House bill 627 creates a new section of the Election Code that requires provisional and
emergency paper ballots be printed on paper of different colors and a color different from other
paper ballots.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
Although there is no appropriation tied to this bill the Secretary of State offers that it would be
very costly to implement this bill because it would require reprogramming all voting machines in
the state and may require lessening the sensitivity of the optical readers. The cost of
implementation could reach up to one million dollars.
SIGNIFICANT ISSUES
County Clerks would be responsible for inventorying identical ballots of different colors for each
precinct in addition to all existing election responsibilities.
TECHNICAL ISSUES
pg_0002
House Bill 627 – Page
2
It is unclear whether persons who have color-blindness would be affected by this change.
OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES
According to the AODA it is possible that it would likely make discrimination between different
types of ballots easier for election officials.
EO/nt