OFFICE OF FISCAL ANALYSIS
Legislative Office Building, Room 5200
Hartford, CT 06106 (860) 240-0200
http://www.cga.ct.gov/ofa
sHB-6872
AN ACT CONCERNING FAITHLESS PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS
AND AUTHORIZING MANDAMUS ACTIONS RELATED TO THE
CERTIFICATION OR DECLARATION OF ELECTION RESULTS.
Primary Analyst: MT 3/29/23
Contributing Analyst(s):
Reviewer: EW
OFA Fiscal Note
State Impact:
Agency Affected Fund-Effect FY 24 $ FY 25 $
Governor's Off.; Treasurer;
Attorney General; Secretary of
the State
GF - Potential
Cost
See Below See Below
Note: GF=General Fund
Municipal Impact:
Municipalities Effect FY 24 $ FY 25 $
Various Municipalities Potential
Cost
See Below See Below
Explanation
The bill does create some potential cost to the state. The bill creates
criminal penalties for faithless electors at the national level; and
empowers state residents to bring a writ of mandamus action against
specific officers to complete certification duties. Any mandamus case
would be given jurisdiction to the Connecticut Supreme Court. The bill
does note that if a resident were to prevail in their lawsuit, they would
be able to recover their court costs and reasonable attorney's fees. While
it is not specifically stipulated who those potential fees could be
recovered from, if it were state government, some costs could be
involved.
Because registrars and municipal officials are responsible for some 2023HB-06872-R000336-FN.DOCX Page 2 of 2
election related certification it is possible that they too could face a
mandamus lawsuit. Should the individual suing prevail like state
government local government could face costs of recovery.
The Out Years
The annualized ongoing fiscal impact identified above would
continue into the future subject to inflation.