BILL NUMBER:  SB 1050
  VETOED	DATE: 10/07/2005




To the Members of the California State Senate:

I am returning Senate Bill 1050 without my signature.

One of the sacred tenets of our democracy is that every vote needs to
be counted.  The question this bill attempts to address is whether
county elections officials should count a vote for a write-in
candidate when the voter does not mark the voting space next to the
write-in candidates name.  It does so by requiring that if the number
of votes a qualified write-in candidate receives plus the number of
undervotes (where no vote is recorded in a particular race) is equal
to or greater than  the number of votes garnered by the winner (in a
single election) or the minimum number of votes needed to be elected
(in a multi-winner election), then the write-in candidate can request
that the undervotes be tallied at county expense.  At that time, the
clerk would discern the voters intent.

This process will expand the number of manual hand recounts, which
will lead to an unnecessary delay in completing the canvass and
certifying election results.  It will require county elections
officials to review every mark on ballots even in situations where it
is virtually impossible for the candidate challenging the vote to
prevail.

Sincerely,



Arnold Schwarzenegger