BILL ANALYSIS
AB 46
Page 1
( Without Reference to File )
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 46 (Monning)
As Amended June 14, 2010
2/3 vote. Urgency
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|ASSEMBLY: | |(June 1, 2009) |SENATE: |33-0 |(June 17, 2010) |
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(vote not relevant)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
|COMMITTEE VOTE: |7-0 |(June 21, 2010) |RECOMMENDATION: |concur |
| | | | | |
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Original Committee Reference: U. & C.
SUMMARY : Provides flexibility to elections officials in four
California counties to conduct separate manual tallies of polling
place ballots and vote by mail (VBM) ballots for elections held on
three specified dates.
The Senate amendments delete the Assembly version of this bill, and
instead:
1)Authorize an official who conducts an election in San Luis
Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, or Santa Cruz County that
takes place on June 8, 2010, June 22, 2010, or August 17, 2010,
to conduct a public manual tally of ballots tabulated by the
voting system used in the election by completing the following:
a) A public manual tally of ballots cast at the polling place
in one percent of the precincts, excluding all VBM ballots;
and,
b) A separate public manual tally of not less than one percent
of the VBM ballots.
2)Provide that an official who conducts a public manual tally of
ballots using the procedure outlined above for an election does
not need to conduct a public manual tally of the ballots cast in
AB 46
Page 2
one percent of precincts, including all VBM ballots, for that
election.
3)Add an urgency clause.
4)Add a January 1, 2011 sunset date.
EXISTING LAW requires the elections official, during the official
canvass of an election in which a voting system is used, to conduct
a public manual tally of ballots cast in one percent of the
precincts, including any VBM ballots cast in those precincts.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill extended the sunset date on
both the Energy Conservation Assistance Account and the Local
Jurisdiction Energy Assistance Account, to January 1, 2020.
FISCAL EFFECT : Keyed non-fiscal by the Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS : On April 27, 2010 the Governor issued a proclamation
setting August 17, 2010 as the date for a special runoff election
to fill the vacancy in Senate District 15 which was created when
former Senator Abel Maldonado was sworn in as Lieutenant Governor.
Pursuant to current law, the special primary election was scheduled
for June 22, 2010, just two weeks after the regular Statewide
Primary Election on June 8, 2010.
Concerns over the cost associated and man power required to conduct
two June elections prompted the Senate District 15 counties to work
with the Secretary of State's office to develop a proposal that
will improve the ability of the counties to manage this compacted
election schedule. The change proposed by this bill provides a
simpler process for the post election manual tally conducted on VBM
ballots only.
Counties currently have to manually tally a portion of these
ballots but must first sort them by precinct. By allowing the
counties to conduct separate manual tallies for polling place and
VBM ballots, elections officials will not have to conduct the labor
intensive and lengthy sorting process. According to information
from Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, the alternate
manual tally process proposed by this bill could reduce the number
of man-hours required for the post-election manual tally by 90
percent.
Among other provisions, SB 1235 (Bowen), Chapter 893, Statutes of
AB 46
Page 3
2006, required county elections officials to include VBM ballots in
the manual tally of votes cast in one percent of the precincts.
Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094
FN: 0004900