Morgan Bill Makes Saying How Someone Voted A Third-Degree Felony

The text as introduced · 411 words

89R3477 TSS-F

By: Morgan
H.B. No. 3517

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the prosecution of the criminal offense of unlawfully

publishing a vote.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Section 61.006, Election Code, is amended to

read as follows:

Sec. 61.006. UNLAWFULLY PUBLISHING [ DIVULGING ] VOTE. (a)

In this section:

(1) "Effective consent" means consent by a person

legally authorized to act for the voter. Consent is not effective

if:

(A) induced by force, threat, or fraud;

(B) given by a person the actor knows is not

legally authorized to act for the voter;

(C) given by a person who by reason of youth,

mental disease or defect, or intoxication is known by the actor to

be unable to make reasonable decisions; or

(D) given solely to detect the commission of an

offense.

(2) "Publish" means to communicate information or make

information available to another person orally, in writing, or by

means of telecommunication or electronic communication.

(a-1) A person commits an offense if the person [ was in a

polling place for any purpose other than voting and ] knowingly

publishes [ communicates to another person information that the

person obtained at the polling place about ] how a voter has voted

without the effective consent of the voter .

(b) An offense under this section is a felony of the third

degree.

(c) It is an exception to prosecution under this section

that the person published the voter's voting [ This section does not

apply to ] information during:

(1) [ presented in ] an official investigation to which

the information was relevant; or

(2) an administrative, executive, legislative, or

judicial proceeding conducted before a public servant and to [ other

official proceeding in ] which the information was [ is ] relevant ,

including during the administration of an election .

SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act applies 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, 2025.