BILL ANALYSIS
SB 967
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 24, 2008
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Curren D. Price, Chair
SB 967 (Simitian) - As Amended: June 17, 2008
SENATE VOTE : (vote not relevant)
SUBJECT : Election precincts.
SUMMARY : Permits an elections official to subtract the number
of permanent vote by mail voters (PVBMVs) from the total number
of voters when creating precincts provided that the number of
voters in the precinct does not exceed the percentage of
non-PVBMVs in the jurisdiction on the 88th day prior to the
election multiplied by 1,000.
EXISTING LAW requires, whenever a jurisdiction is divided into
election precincts or whenever the boundary of an established
precinct is changed or a new precinct is created, the precinct
boundary to be fixed in a manner so that the number of voters in
the precinct does not exceed 1,000 on the 88th day prior to the
election.
FISCAL EFFECT : This bill has been keyed non-fiscal by the
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of the Bill : SB 967 is intended to ensure that
counties don't have empty polling places in one part of town
while voters are waiting in long lines in another part of
town. SB 967 will allow counties to move polling places from
areas of the county with high concentrations of PVBMVs and few
polling place voters into areas of the county with low
concentrations of PVBMVs and relatively more polling place
voters.
SB 967 would not measurably change the total number of precincts
in each county, but would give counties the option of
adjusting precinct boundaries so that roughly the same number
of polling place voters would be served by each polling place
within a county.
2)Permanent Vote By Mail Voting : In the last few years, the
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number of voters who are PVBMVs has increased significantly,
particularly since the enactment of AB 1520 (Shelley), Chapter
922, Statutes of 2001, which allowed any voter to become a
PVBMV. Whereas there were fewer than 300,000 PVBMVs in
November 2000 according to a report from the Secretary of
State (SOS), that number reached nearly 4 million by November
2006 (the most recent data available). That represents about
one-quarter of all registered voters statewide.
While the total number of PVBMVs has increased significantly in
the last 7 years, the percentage of voters registered as
PVBMVs varies widely from county to county. In at least 6
counties, more than 40% of all registered voters are PVBMVs,
including one county (Marin) where more than half of all
registered voters are PVBMVs. On the other hand, in two
counties, fewer than 20 percent of registered voters are
PVBMVs.
3)Shifting Precincts : Unlike previous legislation dealing with
precinct size, the primary effect of this bill will not be to
reduce the number of precincts, but to shift precincts within
a county from areas with high concentrations of PVBMVs to
areas with lower concentrations of PVBMVs, and thus to roughly
equalize the number of polling place voters that are served by
each polling place within a county.
To understand why this is the case, consider a hypothetical
California county named Washington County, with one million
registered voters, 40 percent of whom are registered as
PVBMVs. Under existing law, the minimum number of precincts
that Washington County could have at a statewide election is
1,000 precincts (1 million voters divided by a maximum of
1,000 voters per precinct). However, while that is the
minimum number of precincts that the county could have at a
statewide election, counties typically have more than the
minimum number of precincts at any given election due to
various reasons, including the fact that combinations of
district boundary lines may prevent county elections officials
from having the maximum 1,000 voters in every precinct.
Washington County has 600,000 voters who are not PVBMVs. As
such, if Washington County chose to take advantage of the
option provided by this bill, the county would still have to
have at least 1,000 precincts (60% of the voters in the county
are non-PVBMVs, multiplied by 1,000 gives a maximum of 600
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non-PVBMVs per precinct).
Furthermore, assume that within Washington County, there are
four cities - the Cities of Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and
Monroe. Each city has a different level of voters who are
PVBMVs. Adams, which is reflective of the county as a whole,
has 250,000 voters, 40% of which are PVBMVs. In Jefferson,
which has 300,000 voters, very few voters have signed up to
vote by mail, so only 20% of Jefferson voters are PVBMVs.
Madison has a high density of voters who prefer to vote by
mail, with 60% of its 150,000 voters signed up as PVBMVs.
Finally, Monroe has the remaining 300,000 voters in the
county, with 50% of those voters signed up as PVBMVs. For the
purposes of this hypothetical situation, assume that within
each city, the PVBMVs in that city are evenly distributed.
The chart below demonstrates the minimum number of precincts
that there would be in each of these 4 cities under existing
law and the minimum number of precincts that there would be in
each city under the provisions of this bill.
----------------------------------------------------------------
| | City of | City of | City of | City of |
| | Adams | Jefferson | Madison | Monroe |
|------------+------------+------------+------------+------------|
|# of | 250,000 | 300,000 | 150,000 | 300,000 |
|Registered | | | | |
|Voters | | | | |
|------------+------------+------------+------------+------------|
|# of PVBMVs | 100,000 | 60,000 | 90,000 | 150,000 |
|------------+------------+------------+------------+------------|
|% of Voters | 40% | 20% | 60% | 50% |
|Who are | | | | |
|PVBMVs | | | | |
|------------+------------+------------+------------+------------|
|Minimum # | 250 | 300 | 150 | 300 |
|of | | | | |
|Precincts | | | | |
|Under | | | | |
|Existing | | | | |
|Law | | | | |
|------------+------------+------------+------------+------------|
|Minimum # | 250 | 400 | 100 |250 |
|of | | | | |
|Precincts | | | | |
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|under SB | | | | |
|967 | | | | |
----------------------------------------------------------------
As this chart demonstrates, areas with a low proportion of
voters who are non-PVBMVs would see an increase in the minimum
number of precincts in those areas, while areas with a high
proportion of voters who are non-PVBMVs would see a decrease
in the minimum number of precincts in those areas. The total
number of precincts within the county would remain unchanged.
The effect of this bill, then, is that it allows jurisdictions
to equalize the number of non-PVBMVs assigned to each precinct
throughout the jurisdiction. Under existing law,
approximately 800 non-PVBMVs would be assigned to each
precinct in the City of Jefferson, whereas only 400 non-PVBMVs
would be assigned to each precinct in the City of Madison. If
Washington County chose to exercise the option provided by
this bill, approximately 600 non-PVBMVs would be assigned to
each precinct in both the City of Jefferson and the City of
Madison.
While this bill will not allow counties to decrease the number
of precincts in response to an increase in PVBMVs to any
significant extent, it will allow counties to balance the
number of voters that are expected to be served by each
individual polling place, so that it would be less likely that
a polling place in the City of Madison would be relatively
unused, while a polling place in the City of Jefferson would
be busy throughout the day.
4)Absentee Voting vs. Vote By Mail Voting : Last year, this
committee approved and the Governor signed AB 1243 (Karnette),
Chapter 508, Statutes of 2007. Among other provisions, AB
1243 changed the name of "absentee" voting to "vote by mail"
voting, in an attempt to clarify that a voter does not need to
be absent from his or her precinct on election day in order to
choose to vote by mail.
Because it may take people, including committee staff, time to
become familiar with this new terminology, committee staff may
inadvertently refer to "absentee" voting and committee
analyses may include the obsolete term "absentee" voting on
occasion. When these terms are used and/or appear in a
committee analysis, they should be understood to be references
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to "vote by mail" voting.
5)Related Legislation : AB 2633 (Torrico), which is pending in
the Senate Appropriations Committee, prohibits more than six
polling places from being placed at the same location at a
statewide direct primary, presidential primary, or general
election. AB 2633 was approved by this committee on a 7-0
vote, and was approved by the Assembly by a 76-0 vote.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file.
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094