HBA-GUM H.B. 2785 76(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 2785 By: Dunnam Elections 7/27/1999 Enrolled BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Prior to the 76th Texas Legislature, state law provided that a person must be a resident of the territory covered by an election for the office or measure on which the person desires to vote in order to be eligible to vote. In addition, the law dictated that in order to be eligible to be a candidate for, elected to, or appointed to, a public office in this state, a person must reside in the territory from which the office is elected for five months immediately preceding the date. With regard to an election, a change in the boundary of a territorial unit of a political subdivision is effective if the change was adopted more than five months before election day. Thus, if a territory was annexed in December of one year a person in the annexed area may be ineligible to vote in the subsequent May city council election. H.B. 2785 amends the Election Code to allow newly annexed citizens of a territory the right to participate in the city election process by reducing the five month election residency requirement to three months. 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 276.006, Election Code, to decrease from five to three months before an election the date by which a change in the boundary of a political subdivision must be made in order to be effective with respect to the election. SECTION 2. Effective date: January 1, 2000. SECTION 3. Emergency clause.