OFFICE OF FISCAL ANALYSIS
Legislative Office Building, Room 5200
Hartford, CT 06106 (860) 240-0200
http://www.cga.ct.gov/ofa
sHB-5448
AN ACT CONCERNING SECURITY OF CERTAIN ELECTION
WORKERS AND ELECTIONS -RELATED LOCATIONS.
Primary Analyst: TM 4/9/24
Contributing Analyst(s): BP
Reviewer: PR
OFA Fiscal Note
State Impact:
Agency Affected Fund-Effect FY 25 $ FY 26 $
Judicial Dept. (Probation);
Correction, Dept.
GF - Potential
Cost
Minimal Minimal
Resources of the General Fund GF - Potential
Revenue Gain
Minimal Minimal
Note: GF=General Fund
Municipal Impact: None
Explanation
The bill makes a variety of changes related to security of election
workers and results in the fiscal impacts described below.
Section 1 expands protections from personal address disclosure to
municipal town clerks, registrar of voters, and election officials from
within a narrow timeframe around elections and results in no fiscal
impact to the state or municipalities.
Section 2 creates a new class D felony for possessing a weapon near
an election site, which results in a potential cost to the Department of
Correction and the Judicial Department for incarceration or probation
and a potential revenue gain to the General Fund from fines. On
average, the marginal cost to the state for incarcerating an offender for 2024HB-05448-R000414-FN.DOCX Page 2 of 2
the year is $3,300
1
while the average marginal cost for supervision in the
community is less than $800
2
each year for adults and $1,000 each year
for juveniles.
Section 3 expands an existing class C felony to include influencing or
attempting to influence an election worker
3
and creates a new class A
misdemeanor for publicly disclosing an election worker's personal
information. This results in a potential cost to the Department of
Correction and the Judicial Department for incarceration or probation
and a potential revenue gain to the General Fund from fines, as
described above.
The Out Years
The annualized ongoing fiscal impact identified above would
continue into the future subject to the number of violations.
1
Inmate marginal cost is based on increased consumables (e.g., food, clothing, water,
sewage, living supplies, etc.). This does not include a change in staffing costs or utility
expenses because these would only be realized if a unit or facility opened.
2
Probation marginal cost is based on services provided by private providers and only
includes costs that increase with each additional participant. This does not include a
cost for additional supervision by a probation officer unless a new offense is
anticipated to result in enough additional offenders to require additional probation
officers.
3
Since FY 14, there have not been any charges under CGS 9-364a.