HBA-DMD, TYH H.B. 1140 76(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1140
By: Thompson
Elections
10/19/1999
Enrolled



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Prior to the 76th Legislature, clerks were required to send a certified
copy of each felony judgment of conviction to the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice (TDCJ) as well as an abstract of final felony conviction
to the voter registrar in the felon's county of residence. This duplicated
reporting performed by TDCJ, which was also required to send felony
information to voter registrars of Texas. Additionally, some district
clerks entered felony conviction data into their local jury pool and voter
registration system, and reported this information to the Department of
Public Safety, which stored the information in a statewide data bank.  Thus
the filing of abstracts of judgment on a local level could have been
repetitive.  H.B. 1140 removes the requirement that the clerk prepare an
abstract of each final judgment in the month in which a person 18 years of
age or older who is a resident of the state is convicted of a felony.  

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1.  Amends Section 16.003, Election Code, as follows:

Sec. 16.003.  FELONY CONVICTION. (a) Removes the requirement that the clerk
of each court having felony jurisdiction prepare an abstract of each final
judgment of a court served by the clerk occurring in the month in which a
person 18 years of age or older who is a resident of the state is convicted
of a felony. The effect of this change is to require the institutional
division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (institutional
division) to prepare an abstract of each final judgment received by the
institutional division in the month in which a person 18 years of age or
older who is a resident of the state is convicted of a felony. Makes
conforming changes. 

SECTION 2.Effective date: September 1, 1999.

SECTION 3.Emergency clause.