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.