TEEAA~TORNEYGENERAL 

OF TEXAS 

AUS’FIN ai.TExas 

February 4, 1957 

Hon. Carlton Moore, Sr. Opinion No. WW-16 

House of Representatives 

Capitol Station Re: Authority of Legislature to reAustin, Texas quire a rendition of real 

property as a prerequisite 

Dear Mr. Moore: to voting in bond elections. 

Your letter requesting our opinion relative to the captioned 

matter reads, in part, a& follows: 

“As Chairman of the Committee on Privtleges, 

Suffrage, and Elections, I have before me a Bill 

regarding rendition of property for the purpose of 

voting in bond elections. I would like to know lf we 

can make the law read ‘real property’. In other 

words, we feel that a person owning a watch or an 

automobile should not have the right to straddle 

millions of dollars of bonds on real property owners’ 

backs as, after all, they are the ones who have t6 

pay the taxes.” 

Section 3s of Article VI of the Texas Constitution reads as:. 

follows: 

“When an election is held by any county, or 

any number of counties, or any political sub-division 

of the Sta,te, or any political sub-division of a county, 

or any defined district now or hereafter to be 

described and defined within the State and which may 

or may not include towns, villages or municipal 

corporations, or any city, town or village, for the 

purpose of issuing bonds or otherwise lending credit, 

or expending money or assuming any debt, only 

qualified electors who own taxable property in the .- 

State, county, political subdivision, district, city, town 

or village where such election is held, and who have 

duly rendered the same for taxation, shall be qualified 

to vote and all electors shall vote in the election 

precinct of their residence.” 

You will note that the above quoted constitutional provision 

states “. . . who own taxable property in the State, county, political 

sub-division, district, city, town or village where such election is 

held, and who have duly rendered the same for taxation, shall be 
Hon. Carlton Moore, SE, page 2 (WW-16) 

qualified to vote. . .” (Emphasis added.) 

Our courts have held that the phrase “kixable property” 

as used in Section 3a of Article VI of the Constitution includes personal as well as real property. Lucchese v. MaueFman, 195 S.$‘.Zd 

4.22 (1947, writ. ref. n.r.e.); Border v. Abell, 111 S.W.2a I186’ (1937). 

The Attorney General in 1934 in an opinion recorded in 

Volume 353, page 536 written by Pat Dougherty, held Article 2955-b, 

V.C.S. (since repealed), which attempted to confine the legal 

qualificatltins of a voter at bond elections to owner~ship and rendition 

of real property, to be unconstitutional. 

The Court in Public Utilities Corporatidn v. Holland, 123 

S.W.2d 1028 (1938 writ dism.) in construing Article VI, Section 3s. 

Texas Cdnstitution, held that ‘all persons WLO had paid their ~$011 

tax and who owned taxable property, either real or personal-,. we.re 

qualified to vote if their property was rendered for taxation.. The 

Court discussed said repealed Article 2955b wl+lch attempted to 

restrict the right to vote in bond elections to those who Owned and 

rendered real property. 

The Attorney General in later opikons O-6175 (1944) and 

O-1178 (1939) held said repealed Article 2955b, V.C.S., to be unconstitutional as contravening Section 3a of Article VI of the Constitution. 

It is therefore our opinion that an Act of the Legislature 

which provides that persons voting in bond elections must own and 

render real property for taxation would conflict with Section 3a of 

Article VI of the Texas Constitution and be, for that reason, 

unconstitutional. 

SUMMARY 

An Act of the Legislature which provides that 

persons voting in bond elections must own and 

render real property for taxation would conflict 

with Section 3a of Article VI of the Texas 

Constitution and be, for that reason, unconstitutional. 

Yours very truly, 

APPROVED: 

OPINION COMMITTEE 

H. Grady Chandler, Chairman 

WILL WILSON 

Attorney General of Texas 

WVG: cs BY 

Assistant