86R4731 GRM-F
 
  By: Israel H.B. No. 1600
 
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
  relating to procedures for submitting a ballot to be voted by mail;
  creating an exception to the application of a criminal offense.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Section 86.006, Election Code, is amended by
  amending Subsections (a-1) and (f) to read as follows:
         (a-1)  The secretary of state shall prescribe a procedure for
  the delivery of [The voter may deliver] a marked ballot in person
  during the early voting period and on election day. The procedure
  must provide:
               (1)  for a person to deliver the marked ballot to:
                     (A)  during the early voting period or while the
  polls are open on election day, the early voting clerk's office;
                     (B)  during the early voting period, an election
  officer at an early voting polling place where the voter who marked
  the ballot is eligible to cast a ballot; or
                     (C)  [only] while the polls are open on election
  day, an election officer at a polling place where the voter who
  marked the ballot is eligible to cast a ballot;
               (2)  for an election officer to accept a marked ballot
  delivered in person before accepting others offering to vote at the
  polling place who arrived before the person delivering the ballot;
               (3)  for the submission of a form prescribed by the
  secretary of state that includes the following information:
                     (A)  the name, address, and signature of the voter
  who marked the ballot; and
                     (B)  the name and address of the person delivering
  the ballot;
               (4)  a requirement that for each election a person may
  only deliver the person's own ballot and the ballot of one other
  voter; and
               (5)  that a person[. A voter] who delivers the person's
  own [a] marked ballot in person must present the documentation
  required under Section 63.001 [an acceptable form of identification
  described by Section 63.0101].
         (f)  A person commits an offense if the person knowingly
  possesses an official ballot or official carrier envelope provided
  under this code to another. Unless the person possessed the ballot
  or carrier envelope with intent to defraud the voter or the election
  authority, this subsection does not apply to a person who, on the
  date of the offense, was:
               (1)  related to the voter within the second degree by
  affinity or the third degree by consanguinity, as determined under
  Subchapter B, Chapter 573, Government Code;
               (2)  physically living in the same dwelling as the
  voter;
               (3)  an early voting clerk or a deputy early voting
  clerk;
               (4)  a person who possesses a ballot or carrier
  envelope solely for the purpose of lawfully assisting a voter who
  was eligible for assistance under Section 86.010 and complied fully
  with:
                     (A)  Section 86.010; and
                     (B)  Section 86.0051, if assistance was provided
  in order to deposit the envelope in the mail or with a common or
  contract carrier;
               (5)  an employee of the United States Postal Service
  working in the normal course of the employee's authorized duties;
  [or]
               (6)  a common or contract carrier working in the normal
  course of the carrier's authorized duties if the official ballot is
  sealed in an official carrier envelope that is accompanied by an
  individual delivery receipt for that particular carrier envelope;
  or
               (7)  a person delivering the ballot of one other voter
  under Subsection (a-1).
         SECTION 2.  The changes in law made by this Act apply only to
  an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act. An
  offense committed before the effective date of this Act is governed
  by the law in effect on the date the offense was committed, and the
  former law is continued in effect for that purpose. For purposes of
  this section, an offense was committed before the effective date of
  this Act if any element of the offense occurred before that date.
         SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2019.