By:  Danburg                                          H.B. No. 2152
       73R991 DRH-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to compelling a voter to reveal a vote in an election
    1-3  contest.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 221.009, Election Code, is amended to
    1-6  read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 221.009.  COMPELLING VOTER TO REVEAL VOTE.  (a)  A voter
    1-8  who cast an illegal vote may be compelled, after the illegality has
    1-9  been established to the satisfaction of the tribunal hearing the
   1-10  contest, to disclose the name of the candidate for whom he voted or
   1-11  how he voted on a measure if the issue is relevant to the election
   1-12  contest.
   1-13        (b)  A voter may be compelled to disclose his vote only in
   1-14  the presence of the tribunal, each party's attorney or his agent,
   1-15  and a shorthand reporter, who may not disclose to any person how
   1-16  the voter voted.
   1-17        (c)  The notes of the shorthand reporter shall be sealed as
   1-18  confidential information and may be opened only by the tribunal or
   1-19  by a court with jurisdiction to review the tribunal's action on the
   1-20  contest.
   1-21        (d)  If the number of illegal votes is equal to or greater
   1-22  than the number of votes necessary to change the outcome of an
   1-23  election, the tribunal may declare the election void without
   1-24  attempting to determine how individual voters voted.
    2-1        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993, and
    2-2  applies only to an election contest instituted on or after that
    2-3  date.  An election contest instituted before September 1, 1993, is
    2-4  governed by the law in effect on the date the contest was
    2-5  instituted, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
    2-6        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-7  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-8  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-9  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-10  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.