By: Phillips H.B. No. 2722
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to early voting ballots for persons with an employment
hardship;
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 82.005, Election Code is amended as
follows:
Employment Hardship. An employment hardship is when an
applicant has absences from the applicant's county of residence due
to the applicant's employment and;
(1) those absences are unpredictable and, at the time of
submitting the application, the applicant does not know where the
applicant will be on election day and during the regular hours for
conducting early voting; or
(2) the employment is of a nature that causes the applicant
to be working periodically offshore.
82.0056. Eligibility for early voting by person appearance.
SECTION 2. 84.002(a) is amended by adding subsection (7) to
read as follows:
(7) for an application for a ballot to be voted by mail on
the ground of employment hardship, the address of the applicant's
employer or of a person related to the applicant within the second
degree by affinity or the third degree by consanguinity, as
determined under Chapter 573, Government Code, if that address is
different from the address at which the applicant is registered to
vote.
SECTION 3. Section 84.011(a)(4), Election Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(G) a space for an applicant applying on the ground of
employment hardship to indicate that the address to which the
ballot is to be mailed is the address of an employer or of a relative
described by Section 84.002(a)(7), if applicable;
(G H) spaces for entering the signature, printed name, and
residence address of any person assisting the applicant;
(H I) a statement informing the applicant of the condition
prescribed by Section 81.005; and
(I J) a statement informing the applicant of the requirement
prescribed by Section 86.003(c).
SECTION 4. Section 86.0015, Election Code, is amended to
read as follows:
Sec. 86.0015. Annual ballots by mail. (a) This section
applies only to an application for a ballot to be voted by mail that
has been marked by the applicant as an application for more than one
election and indicates that the ground of eligibility is:
(1) age or disability; or
(2) employment hardship.
SECTION 5. Section 86.003(c) is amended to read as follows:
(c) The address to which the balloting materials must be
addressed is the address at which the voter is registered to vote,
or the registered mailing address if different, unless the ground
for voting by mail is:
(1) absence from the county of residence, in which case the
address must be an address outside the voter's county of residence;
(2) confinement in j
ail, in which case the address must be
the address of the jail or of a relative described by Section
84.002(a)(4); or
(3) age or disability and the voter is living at a hospital,
nursing home or other long-term care facility, or retirement
center, or with a relative described by Section 84.002(a)(3), in
which case the address must be the address of that facility or
relative; or
(4) employment hardship, in which case the address must be
the address of the applicant's employer or of a person related to
the applicant within the second degree by affinity or the third
degree by consanguinity, as determined under Chapter 573,
Government Code, if that address is different from the address at
which the applicant is registered to vote or the registered mailing
address.
SECTION 6. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2017.