1-1     By:  Maxey, Greenberg (Senate Sponsor - Barrientos)    H.B. No. 324

 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 14, 1997;

 1-3     April 16, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on State

 1-4     Affairs; May 8, 1997, reported favorably by the following vote:

 1-5     Yeas 12, Nays 0; May 8, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to the days and hours during which early voting by

 1-9     personal appearance is conducted in certain municipalities.

1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-11           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 85, Election Code, is

1-12     amended by adding Section 85.008 to read as follows:

1-13           Sec. 85.008.  DAYS AND HOURS FOR VOTING:  ELECTION IN CERTAIN

1-14     CITIES.  (a)  This section applies only to a city with a population

1-15     of more than 450,000 in which all members of the governing body are

1-16     elected on an at-large basis.

1-17           (b)  Notwithstanding and in addition to other applicable

1-18     provisions of this code, in an election in which the city secretary

1-19     is the early voting clerk under Section 83.005, early voting by

1-20     personal appearance shall be conducted on the corresponding days

1-21     and for the same number of hours that the voting is required to be

1-22     conducted in the general election for state and county officers in

1-23     the county in which a majority of the population of the city is

1-24     located.

1-25           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

1-26           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-27     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-28     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-29     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-30     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.

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