By Patterson                                    S.B. No. 1089

      75R3749 DRH-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the contents of an application for an early voting mail

 1-3     ballot.

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

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 84.002(a), Election Code, is amended to

 1-6     read as follows:

 1-7           (a)  An early voting ballot application must include:

 1-8                 (1)  the applicant's name and the address at which the

 1-9     applicant is registered to vote;

1-10                 (2)  for an application for a ballot to be voted by

1-11     mail:

1-12                       (A)  [,] the address to which the ballot is to be

1-13     mailed;

1-14                       (B)  [and] an indication of each election for

1-15     which the voter is applying for a ballot; and

1-16                       (C)  a statement verifying the applicant's

1-17     identity signed by the applicant's spouse or by another appropriate

1-18     person; and

1-19                 (3)  an indication of the ground of eligibility for

1-20     early voting.

1-21           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

1-22           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-23     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-24     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-1     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

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