By Smithee                                            H.B. No. 3712
         Line and page numbers may not match official copy.
         Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the location of polling places and to ballots for
 1-3     write-in voting.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 43.031, Election Code, is amended by
 1-6     adding Subsection (e) to read as follows:
 1-7           (e)  A polling place may not be located at the home of a
 1-8     person who is:
 1-9                 (1)  a candidate for elective office, including a party
1-10     office; or
1-11                 (2)  related within the third degree by consanguinity
1-12     or within the second degree by affinity to a candidate for elective
1-13     office, including a party office.
1-14           SECTION 2.  Section 124.064, Election Code, is amended by
1-15     adding Subsection (c) to read as follows:
1-16           (c)  If an electronic system ballot includes a separate
1-17     write-in part, that part shall be provided to each voter.  The
1-18     authority conducting the election may not require a voter to
1-19     request the separate write-in part as a condition to receiving that
1-20     part.
1-21           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.