H.B. No. 1987

	AN ACT
	relating to the offense of possessing another person's official
	ballot or official carrier envelope.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
	SECTION 1.  Section 86.006, Election Code, is amended by
	amending Subsection (f) and adding Subsection (i) to read as
	follows:
	(f)  A person commits an offense if the person knowingly
	possesses an official ballot or official carrier envelope provided
	under this code to another. Unless the person possessed the ballot
	or carrier envelope with intent to defraud the voter or the election
	authority, [it is an affirmative defense to prosecution under] this
	subsection does not apply to a [that the] person who, on the date of
	the offense, was:
	(1)  related to the voter within the second degree by
	affinity or the third degree by consanguinity, as determined under
	Subchapter B, Chapter 573, Government Code;
	(2)  registered to vote at the same address as the
	voter;
	(3)  an early voting clerk or a deputy early voting
	clerk;
	(4)  a person who possesses the carrier envelope in
	order to deposit the envelope in the mail or with a common or
	contract carrier and who provides the information required by
	Section 86.0051(b) in accordance with that section;
	(5)  an employee of the United States Postal Service
	working in the normal course of the employee's authorized duties;
	or
	(6)  a common or contract carrier working in the normal
	course of the carrier's authorized duties if the official ballot is
	sealed in an official carrier envelope that is accompanied by an
	individual delivery receipt for that particular carrier envelope.
	(i)  In the prosecution of an offense under Subsection (f):
	(1)  the prosecuting attorney is not required to negate
	the applicability of the provisions of Subsections (f)(1)-(6) in
	the accusation charging commission of an offense;
	(2)  the issue of the applicability of a provision of
	Subsection (f)(1), (2), (3), (4), (5), or (6) is not submitted to
	the jury unless evidence of that provision is admitted; and
	(3)  if the issue of the applicability of a provision of
	Subsection (f)(1), (2), (3), (4), (5), or (6) is submitted to the
	jury, the court shall charge that a reasonable doubt on the issue
	requires that the defendant be acquitted.
	SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
	to an offense committed on or after September 1, 2007. An offense
	committed before September 1, 2007, is covered by the law in effect
	when 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 September 1, 2007, if any element of the
	offense occurred before that date.
	SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2007.
	______________________________	______________________________
	President of the Senate	Speaker of the House
	I certify that H.B. No. 1987 was passed by the House on April
	11, 2007, by the following vote:  Yeas 145, Nays 0, 2 present, not
	voting; and that the House concurred in Senate amendments to H.B.
	No. 1987 on May 14, 2007, by the following vote:  Yeas 143, Nays 0,
	2 present, not voting.
	______________________________
	Chief Clerk of the House
	I certify that H.B. No. 1987 was passed by the Senate, with
	amendments, on May 10, 2007, by the following vote:  Yeas 31, Nays
	0.
	______________________________
	Secretary of the Senate
	APPROVED: __________________
	Date
	__________________
	Governor