By Madden                                              H.B. No. 308
         76R859 DRH-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the notice of cancellation of voter registration
 1-3     provided to a person convicted of a felony.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 16.036(a), Election Code, is amended to
 1-6     read as follows:
 1-7           (a)  Immediately after cancellation of a voter's registration
 1-8     under Section 16.031(a)(3), except for a conviction of a felony, or
 1-9     Section 16.033[,] or 16.0331, the registrar shall deliver written
1-10     notice of the cancellation to the voter.               
1-11           SECTION 2.  Article 42.03, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
1-12     amended by adding Section 5 to read as follows:
1-13           Sec. 5.  At the time the judge pronounces the sentence, the
1-14     judge shall inform a defendant convicted of a felony that the
1-15     defendant will lose the right to vote from the time the judgment
1-16     becomes final until the time the defendant's sentence has been
1-17     fully discharged or the defendant has been pardoned or otherwise
1-18     released from the resulting disability to vote as described by
1-19     Section 11.002(4), Election Code.
1-20           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-21           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-22     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-23     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-24     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-1     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.