By Chavez                                       H.B. No. 2994

      75R8655 DRH-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to procedures for voting by telephone.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  (a)  The secretary of state shall implement a

 1-5     pilot program to allow voting by telephone in a primary election or

 1-6     the general election for state and county officers.  The secretary

 1-7     of state shall designate not more than five counties for inclusion

 1-8     in the program.  A county may be included in the program only if

 1-9     the commissioners court of the county approves the use of the

1-10     telephone voting system for the election.

1-11           (b)  The secretary of state shall adopt rules to allow a

1-12     county to conduct an election with a telephone voting system as

1-13     described by Subsection (a)  of this section.  The secretary may

1-14     contract with any governmental entity to assist in implementing the

1-15     system or to provide technical assistance or guidance in operating

1-16     the system, but a system may be administered only by the county

1-17     officer who regularly conducts elections for the county.

1-18           (c)  After conclusion of the election, the secretary of state

1-19     shall file with the governor, the lieutenant governor, and the

1-20     speaker of the house of representatives a report evaluating the use

1-21     of telephone voting in an election.  The secretary of state shall

1-22     make recommendations on whether a telephone voting system should be

1-23     used in future elections and how those elections should be

1-24     implemented.

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

 2-2           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-3     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-4     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-5     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-6     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.