By Maxey                                         H.B. No. 324

      75R1354 GGS-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the days and hours during which early voting by

 1-3     personal appearance is conducted in certain municipalities.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 85, Election Code, is

 1-6     amended by adding Section 85.008 to read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 85.008.  DAYS AND HOURS FOR VOTING:  CITY ELECTION IN

 1-8     COUNTY WITH POPULATION OF 500,000 OR MORE.  Notwithstanding and in

 1-9     addition to other applicable provisions of this code, in an

1-10     election in which the city secretary serving a city in a county

1-11     with a population of 500,000 or more is the early voting clerk

1-12     under Section 83.005, early voting by personal appearance shall be

1-13     conducted on the corresponding days and for the same number of

1-14     hours that the voting is required to be conducted in the county in

1-15     the general election for state and county officers.

1-16           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

1-17           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-18     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-19     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-20     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-21     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.