By Ogden S.B. No. 936
76R7409 ESH-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to certain expenditures by corporations and labor
1-3 organizations for nonpartisan voter registration or
1-4 get-out-the-vote campaigns; providing a criminal penalty.
1-5 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-6 SECTION 1. Section 253.099, Election Code, is amended to
1-7 read as follows:
1-8 Sec. 253.099. NONPARTISAN VOTER REGISTRATION AND
1-9 GET-OUT-THE-VOTE CAMPAIGNS. (a) Except as provided by Subsection
1-10 (b), a [A] corporation or labor organization may make one or more
1-11 expenditures to finance nonpartisan voter registration and
1-12 get-out-the-vote campaigns aimed at its stockholders or members, as
1-13 applicable, or at the families of its stockholders or members.
1-14 (b) A corporation or labor organization may not make an
1-15 expenditure to finance a nonpartisan voter registration or
1-16 get-out-the-vote campaign by contributing money to a political
1-17 committee.
1-18 (c) An expenditure under Subsection (a) [this section] is
1-19 not reportable under Chapter 254.
1-20 (d) A person who violates Subsection (b) commits an offense.
1-21 An offense under this section is a felony of the third degree.
1-22 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-23 SECTION 3. Section 253.099, Election Code, as amended by
1-24 this Act, applies only to an expenditure by a corporation or labor
2-1 organization for a nonpartisan voter registration or
2-2 get-out-the-vote campaign that is made on or after September 1,
2-3 1999. An expenditure by a corporation or labor organization for a
2-4 nonpartisan voter registration or get-out-the-vote campaign that is
2-5 made before September 1, 1999, is governed by the law in effect at
2-6 the time the expenditure was made, and the former law is continued
2-7 in effect for that purpose.
2-8 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
2-9 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-10 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-11 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-12 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.