HBA-GUM H.B. 2785 76(R)BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 2785
By: Dunnam
Elections
7/27/1999
Enrolled



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Prior to the 76th Texas Legislature, state law provided that a person must
be a resident of the territory covered by an election for the office or
measure on which the person desires to vote in order to be eligible to
vote.  In addition, the law dictated that in order to be eligible to be a
candidate for, elected to, or appointed to, a public office in this state,
a person must reside in the territory from which the office is elected for
five months immediately preceding the date.  With regard to an election, a
change in the boundary of a territorial unit of a political subdivision is
effective if the change was adopted more than five months before election
day.  Thus, if a territory was annexed in December of one year a person in
the annexed area may be ineligible to vote in the subsequent May city
council election.  H.B. 2785 amends the Election Code to allow newly
annexed citizens of a territory the right to participate in the city
election process by reducing the five month election residency requirement
to three months. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1.  Amends Section 276.006, Election Code, to decrease from five to
three months before an election the date by which a change in the boundary
of a political subdivision must be made in order to be effective with
respect to the election. 

SECTION 2.  Effective date: January 1, 2000.

SECTION 3.  Emergency clause.