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Committee hears bill to restore attorney generalauthority to prosecute some election offenses
Summary
The Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs heard testimony on Senate Bill 10 26, which would require local prosecutors to act on election-offense reports within six months or be deemed to have consented to the attorney generalprosecuting; witnesses and resource counsel disagreed about constitutional limits after the Stevens opinion.
Senate Bill 10 26, introduced by Chairman Hughes, would change long-standing statutory language to require the attorney general to prosecute election-law violations if a local prosecutor has not begun proceedings within six months. The bill would also require local law enforcement to forward reports of probable cause about election offenses to the attorney general and, on request, to turn over investigative materials.
The billauthor, Chairman Hughes, told the Committee that the Texas Court of Criminal Appealsin Stevens held the attorney general cannot initiate prosecutions unilaterally under current statutory language and that the billwould address that by changing statutory "may" language to "shall" and creating…
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