BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Tom Torlakson, Chairman

                                           1294 (Mullin)
          
          Hearing Date:  8/27/07          Amended: 7/17/07
          Consultant:  Maureen Ortiz      Policy Vote: E.R. & C.A. 3-2
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____
          BILL SUMMARY:   AB 1294 authorizes cities and counties to use  
          ranked voting if approved by the voters or by initiative  
          measure.
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____
                            Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions         2007-08     2008-09       2009-10     Fund
                                                                  
          Ranked voting elections   ---unknown, nonreimbursable, at local  
          option--      Local
                                    
          SOS administrative                        ------minor,  
          absorbable------                     General
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____
          STAFF COMMENTS:  Reconsideration only.  Failed passage 8/22/07  
          by a vote of 8-6.  The Secretary of State (SOS) estimates that  
          the costs for the certification of the voting machines will be  
          $115,000 for each ranked voting system, however, the vendors  
          already fund the certification costs by fees which are placed  
          into an escrow account for these purposes.  Other administrative  
          costs to the SOS will be absorbable.

          Ranked voting is an election method in which voters rank the  
          candidates for office in order of preference, and the ballots  
          are counted in rounds that, in the case of a single-winner  
          election, simulate a series of runoffs until only two candidates  
          remain, with the one having the greater number of votes being  
          declared the winner, or in the case of multiple-winner  
          elections, until all seats are filled.  Since ranked voting  
          systems eliminate the need for costly run-off elections, local  
          jurisdictions could save potentially millions of dollars.

          Every city or county that uses a ranked voting method must  
          conduct a voter education and outreach campaign to familiarize  
          voters with ranked voting in English and in every language that  










          a ballot is required to be printed.  A ranked voting method may  
          not be used unless the election is conducted on a voting system  
          that is capable of conducting the election using ranked voting  
          and that has been approved by the Secretary of State.  To date,  
          there are no currently no systems capable of ranked voting that  
          are approved by the Secretary of State, however, San Francisco  
          had received conditional approval for three elections held in  
          that city in 2004, 2005, and 2006.

          Under current law, only charter cities and counties can use  
          ranked voting.  Of the state's 478 cities, only 108 are charter  
          cities.  Only 14 of the 58 counties in California, are charter  
          counties.  According to the county elections officials,  
          alternative voting methods add another layer of complexity to  
          the administration of elections and, due to the highly complex  
          computer programs required to tabulate such votes, force  
          counties to be totally reliant on vendors for the tabulation of  
          votes cast.  Additionally, during any consolidated election, the  
          statewide results would be tabulated by the regular voting  
          method, and the local results would be by the ranked voting  
          system.