Tex. Elec. Code § 86.005

MARKING AND SEALING BALLOT

Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case 676 So. 2d 1206 - Roe v. Mobile County Appointment Bd. (1995)

Most recently applied in Tarris Woods v. Rusty Legg (August 2011)

Acts 1985, 69th Leg., ch. 211, Sec. 1, eff

How often courts cite this section

citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(a) A voter must mark a ballot voted by mail in accordance with the instructions on the ballot envelope.

(b) A voter may mark the ballot at any time after receiving it.

(c) After marking the ballot, the voter must place it in the official ballot envelope and then seal the ballot envelope, place the ballot envelope in the official carrier envelope and then seal the carrier envelope, and sign the certificate on the carrier envelope using ink on paper. An electronic signature or photocopied signature is not permitted.

(d) Failure to use the official ballot envelope does not affect the validity of the ballot.

(e) After the carrier envelope is sealed by the voter, it may not be opened except as provided by Chapter 87.

Official source: Texas Constitution and Statutes. Reproduced from public-domain Texas statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.