This website will be unavailable from Thursday, May 30, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. through Monday, June 3, 2024 at 7:00 a.m. due to data center maintenance.

                                                                                

79R35 MXM-D

By:  Van Arsdale                                                  H.B. No. 187



A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the right of a resident of a municipal utility district 
to vote in a municipal election.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  Subchapter D, Chapter 43, Local Government Code, 
is amended by adding Section 43.077 to read as follows:
	Sec. 43.077.  EFFECT OF MUNICIPAL ANNEXATION ON VOTING 
RIGHTS.  (a)  This section applies only to a municipality with a 
population of 1.5 million or more.
	(b)  Following annexation of any part of a municipal utility 
district by a municipality, a registered voter of the district is 
entitled to vote in an election of the municipality if the person 
resides in either:
		(1)  the part of the district annexed by the 
municipality; or        
		(2)  the part of the district that is unincorporated 
and is not within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of another 
municipality.
	(c)  A district resident who is entitled to vote under 
Subsection (b)(2) is treated as if the person were a resident of the 
municipality for purposes of a municipal election.
	(d)  If a member of the municipality's governing body is 
elected by only the voters residing in a territorial unit that does 
not include the entire municipality, the municipality shall 
designate the territorial unit in which the part of the district 
described by Subsection (b)(2) will be included for purposes of 
that election.
	(e)  On or after the 15th day but before the fifth day before 
the date of the first election held in which the residents are 
entitled to vote under Subsection (b), the municipality shall 
publish notice in the form of a quarter-page advertisement in a 
newspaper of general circulation in the municipality notifying the 
residents that they are eligible to vote in the election and stating 
the location of all polling places for the residents.
	(f)  This section does not apply to an election to which 
Section 3a, Article VI, Texas Constitution, applies.
	SECTION 2.  A resident of a municipal utility district is 
entitled to vote as provided by Section 43.077, Local Government 
Code, as added by this Act, in a municipal election ordered after 
the effective date of this Act, regardless of when a part of the 
district was annexed.
	SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.