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


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 2785
By: Dunnam
Elections
3/29/1999
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Under current law 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 dictates 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 is 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.