Texas Cumulative Voting Statute

May 2002

The following section of the Texas Education Code was signed into law by Governor George W. Bush on May 30, 1995.

Texas Education Code, Chapter 11

� 11.054. Electing Trustees by Cumulative Voting

     (a) The board of trustees of an independent school district that elects its trustees at large or at large by position may order that elections for trustees be held using the cumulative voting procedure described by this section.

     (b) At an election at which more than one trustee position is to be filled, all of the positions that are to be filled at the election shall be voted on as one race by all the voters of the school district. Each voter is entitled to cast a number of votes equal to the number of positions to be filled at the election.

     (c) A voter may cast one or more of the specified number of votes for any one or more candidates in any combination. Only whole votes may be cast and counted.

     (d) If a voter casts more than the number of votes to which the voter is entitled in the election, none of the voter's votes may be counted in that election. If a voter casts fewer votes than entitled, all of the voter's votes are counted in that election.

     (e) The candidates who are elected are those, in the number to be elected, receiving the highest numbers of votes.

     (f) If the board of trustees adopts an order requiring the use of cumulative voting, only the trustee positions that were scheduled to be elected at the election are filled through the use of cumulative voting.

     (g) An independent school district that adopts an order requiring the use of cumulative voting may not elect its members by position as provided by Section 11.058.

Added by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 260, � 1, eff. May 30, 1995.