1-1     By:  Yarbrough (Senate Sponsor - Whitmire)            H.B. No. 2057
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 11, 1999;
 1-3     May 12, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on State
 1-4     Affairs; May 14, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:
 1-5     Yeas 7, Nays 0; May 14, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the form for an application for an early voting ballot
 1-9     to be voted by mail.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 84.001, Election Code, is amended to read
1-12     as follows:
1-13           Sec. 84.001.  Application Required.  (a)  To be entitled to
1-14     vote an early voting ballot by mail, a person who is eligible for
1-15     early voting must make an application for an early voting ballot to
1-16     be voted by mail as provided by this title.
1-17           (b)  An application must be in writing and signed by the
1-18     applicant.
1-19           (c)  An applicant is not required to use an official
1-20     application form.
1-21           (d)  An applicant may not use an application form that is
1-22     furnished to the applicant unless the application form is printed
1-23     or stamped with the name and official title of the early voting
1-24     clerk as addressee and the clerk's official mailing address.
1-25           (e)  An applicant for a ballot to be voted by mail may apply
1-26     for ballots for the main election and any resulting runoff election
1-27     on the same application.  The timeliness of the application for
1-28     both elections is determined in relation to the main election.
1-29     However, if the application is not timely for the main election,
1-30     the timeliness of the application for the runoff election is
1-31     determined in relation to that election.
1-32           (f) [(e)]  A person who has not made an application as
1-33     provided by this title is not entitled to receive an early voting
1-34     ballot to be voted by mail.
1-35           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-36           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-37     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-38     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-39     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-40     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-41                                  * * * * *