Bill Text: TX HB1600 | 2019-2020 | 86th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating to procedures for submitting a ballot to be voted by mail; creating an exception to the application of a criminal offense.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2019-03-04 - Referred to Elections [HB1600 Detail]
Download: Texas-2019-HB1600-Introduced.html
86R4731 GRM-F | ||
By: Israel | H.B. No. 1600 |
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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 [ |
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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) [ |
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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[ |
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own [ |
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required under Section 63.001 [ |
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(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; | ||
[ |
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(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. |