By Thompson                                           H.B. No. 1140
         76R1742 PAM-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to notice to voter registrars concerning persons convicted
 1-3     of a felony.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 16.003, Election Code, is amended to read
 1-6     as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 16.003.  FELONY CONVICTION.  (a)  Each month the
 1-8     Department of Public Safety shall prepare an abstract of
 1-9     information received under Chapter 60, Code of Criminal Procedure,
1-10     [both the clerk of each court having felony jurisdiction] and the
1-11     institutional division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice
1-12     shall prepare an abstract of each final judgment of a court [served
1-13     by the clerk or] received by the institutional division, [ as
1-14     applicable,] occurring in the month, convicting a person 18 years
1-15     of age or older who is a resident of the state of a felony.
1-16           (b)  The Department of Public Safety [clerk] and the
1-17     institutional division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice
1-18     shall file each abstract with the voter registrar of the person's
1-19     county of residence within a reasonable period and in accordance
1-20     with guidelines adopted by the respective agency [not later than
1-21     the 10th day of the month following the month in  which the
1-22     abstract is prepared].
1-23           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-24           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-1     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-2     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-3     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-4     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.