By Danburg                                             H.B. No. 638
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to combining certain county election precincts.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.   Subchapter A, Chapter 42, Election Code, is
    1-5  amended by adding Section 42.0051 to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 42.0051.  COMBINING CERTAIN PRECINCTS.  (a)  If changes
    1-7  in county election precinct boundaries to give effect to a
    1-8  redistricting plan result in county election precincts with a
    1-9  number of registered voters less than 500, a commissioners court
   1-10  for a general or special election, or for a primary election the
   1-11  county executive committee of a political party conducting a
   1-12  primary election, may combine county election precincts
   1-13  notwithstanding Section 42.005 to avoid unreasonable expenditures
   1-14  for election equipment, supplies, and personnel.
   1-15        (b)  A combined precinct under this section is subject to the
   1-16  maximum population prescribed for a precinct under Section 42.006.
   1-17        (c)  A combined precinct may not be established if it:
   1-18              (1)  results in a dilution of voting strength of a
   1-19  group covered by the federal Voting Rights Act (42 U.S.C. Section
   1-20  1973c et seq.);
   1-21              (2)  results in a dilution of representation of a group
   1-22  covered by the Voting Rights Act in any political or electoral
   1-23  process or procedure; or
   1-24              (3)  results in discouraging participation by a group
    2-1  covered by the Voting Rights Act in any political or electoral
    2-2  process or procedure because of the location of a polling place or
    2-3  other factors.
    2-4        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-5  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-6  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-7  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-8  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-9  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-10  passage, and it is so enacted.