HB3517 - Relating to the prosecution of the criminal offense of unlawfully publishing a vote.

  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.