AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49, Chapter 2, Part 2, relative to authorizing nonpartisan primary elections for members of local Boards of Education.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:

SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-2-201, is amended by adding the following new subsection:

(e)(1) Beginning with the election for members of Boards of Education to be held in the year 2000, a local governing body in a county which would otherwise conduct a county primary election may elect, by a two-thirds (2/3) vote, to have a non-partisan primary election for members of the school board at that primary election.

If one candidate for a Board of Education election receives a majority of votes cast in the nonpartisan primary, then such candidate's name shall appear on the ballot in the general election. If no candidate for a Board of Education election receives a majority of votes cast in the nonpartisan primary, then the two (2) candidates receiving the two (2) highest vote totals shall run against one another in the regular election.

(e)(2) The provisions of this subsection shall apply only to counties having a unified school system and a charter form of government.

SECTION 2. The provisions of this act shall not apply in any county having a population of not less than eight hundred twenty-five thousand (825,000) nor more than eight hundred thirty thousand (830,000) according to the 1990 Federal Census or any subsequent Federal Census.

SECTION 3. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it.