By Moreno of El Paso H.B. No. 993
76R2866 PAM-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to requiring candidates for or appointees to certain
1-3 elective offices to be registered voters.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 141.001(a), Election Code, is amended to
1-6 read as follows:
1-7 (a) To be eligible to be a candidate for, or elected or
1-8 appointed to, a public elective office in this state, a person
1-9 must:
1-10 (1) be a United States citizen;
1-11 (2) be 18 years of age or older on the first day of
1-12 the term to be filled at the election or on the date of
1-13 appointment, as applicable;
1-14 (3) be a registered voter on the date the person, as
1-15 applicable:
1-16 (A) files an application for a place on the
1-17 ballot, an application for nomination by convention, a declaration
1-18 of intent to become an independent candidate, or a declaration of
1-19 write-in candidacy; or
1-20 (B) is appointed to an office;
1-21 (4) have not been determined mentally incompetent by a
1-22 final judgment of a court;
1-23 (5) [(4)] have not been finally convicted of a felony
1-24 from which the person has not been pardoned or otherwise released
2-1 from the resulting disabilities;
2-2 (6) [(5)] have resided continuously in the state for
2-3 12 months and in the territory from which the office is elected for
2-4 six months immediately preceding the following date:
2-5 (A) for a candidate whose name is to appear on a
2-6 general primary election ballot, the date of the regular filing
2-7 deadline for a candidate's application for a place on the ballot;
2-8 (B) for an independent candidate, the date of
2-9 the regular filing deadline for a candidate's application for a
2-10 place on the ballot;
2-11 (C) for a write-in candidate, the date of the
2-12 election at which the candidate's name is written in;
2-13 (D) for a party nominee who is nominated by any
2-14 method other than by primary election, the date the nomination is
2-15 made; and
2-16 (E) for an appointee to an office, the date the
2-17 appointment is made; and
2-18 (7) [(6)] satisfy any other eligibility requirements
2-19 prescribed by law for the office.
2-20 SECTION 2. (a) This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-21 (b) The change in law made by this Act does not apply to a
2-22 person who holds office on the effective date of this Act during
2-23 the term of that office.
2-24 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-25 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-26 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-27 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-1 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.