By Duncan                                              S.B. No. 410
         76R1596 DRH-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to requiring a candidate for statewide judicial office to
 1-3     submit a petition with the candidate's application for a place on
 1-4     the ballot.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Section 172.021(e), Election Code, is amended to
 1-7     read as follows:
 1-8           (e)  A candidate for a statewide judicial office, for an
 1-9     office specified by Section 172.024(a)(8), (10), or (12), or for
1-10     justice of the  peace in a county with a population of more than
1-11     850,000[,] who chooses to pay the filing fee must also accompany
1-12     the application with a petition that complies with the requirements
1-13     prescribed for the petition authorized by Subsection (b), except
1-14     that the minimum number of signatures that must appear on the
1-15     petition required by this subsection is 250.  If the candidate
1-16     chooses to file the petition authorized by Subsection (b) instead
1-17     of the filing fee, the minimum number of signatures required for
1-18     that petition is increased by 250.  Signatures on a petition filed
1-19     under this subsection or Subsection (b) by a candidate covered by
1-20     this subsection may not be obtained on the grounds of a county
1-21     courthouse or courthouse annex.
1-22           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-23           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-24     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-1     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-2     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-3     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.