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


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1140
By: Thompson
Elections
3/1/1999
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Currently, clerks are required to send a certified copy of each felony
judgment of conviction in a pen pack to the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice (TDCJ) and an abstract of final felony conviction to the voter
registrar in the felon's county of residence.  This duplicates reporting
performed by the TDCJ, which is also required to send felony information to
voter registrars of Texas.  Additionally, some district clerks enter felony
conviction data into their local jury pool and voter registration system,
and report this information on the CR-43 form to the Department of Public
Safety, which stores the information in a statewide data bank.  Thus the
filing of abstracts of judgment on a local level can be repetitive.  H.B.
1140 deletes the requirement that the clerk send an abstract of felony
judgment to the voter registrar.  

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)  Requires the Department of Public
Safety (department) to prepare a monthly abstract of information received
under Chapter 60 (Criminal History Record System), Code of Criminal
Procedure.  Removes the requirement that the clerk of each court having
felony jurisdiction (clerk) prepare a monthly abstract of each final
judgment of a court, served by the clerk, convicting a person 18 years of
age or older who is a resident of the state of a felony.  Makes conforming
changes. 

(b)  Requires the department, rather than the clerk, to file the abstract
with the voter registrar of the person's county of residence within a
reasonable period and in accordance with guidelines adopted by the agency,
rather than not later than the 10th day of the month following the month in
which the abstract is prepared. 

SECTION 2.Effective date: September 1, 1999.

SECTION 3.Emergency clause.