BILL ANALYSIS Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair 308 (Cook) Hearing Date: 8/17/2009 Amended: 5/11/2009 Consultant: Maureen Ortiz Policy Vote: ER&CA 4-0 _________________________________________________________________ ____ BILL SUMMARY: AB 308 requires county elections officials to prepare a special runoff ballot for special absentee voters to be counted if there is a runoff election for any of the offices on that ballot. _________________________________________________________________ ____ Fiscal Impact (in thousands) Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund Runoff ballots -------potentially $100 annually--------- General* *Reimbursable local mandate. _________________________________________________________________ ____ STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE. Preliminary estimates for county elections officials to prepare initial runoff ballots, conduct voter outreach, and consequently manually count runoff ballots could exceed $100,000 per election, although the actual number of run-off elections that will be held is unknown. These costs would constitute a state reimbursable local mandate, and would therefore be paid from the General Fund. There were approximately 103,000 special absentee voters in the November 2008 election. If 5,000 special runoff ballots are sent annually, with an average cost of $20 each for printing, mailing and processing the ballots, instructions, and return envelopes, costs would be $100,000. Current law defines "special absentee voter" as an elector who is any of the following: 1) a member of the armed forces of the United States, 2) a United States citizen temporarily living outside the territorial limits of the country, 3) a person serving on a merchant vessel documented under the law of the United States, or 4) a spouse or dependent of a member of the armed forces. Current law requires the elections official to mail a ballot to special absentee voters as soon as possible on or after the 60th day prior to an election to ensure that the voter has sufficient time to receive, complete, and return his or her absentee ballot. To help accommodate and facilitate the voting by special absentee voters, AB 2941 (Bates), Chapter 821, Statutes of 2004, permits these voters to return their ballots by facsimile transmission. This law was enacted to accommodate voters who, due to the potential delays in international mail delivery, or the structural barriers present in combat areas, may not be able to receive, vote, and return an absentee ballot in the 60 day period provided for overseas absentee voters. California law also allows the elections official to transmit an absentee ballot to an overseas voter by facsimile or other electronic transmission. Page 2 AB 308 (Cook) AB 308 will provide that overseas voters will receive two similar ballots at the same time for certain elections. One ballot will be for the first round of the election, while the second ballot will be the "special runoff ballot" that is being provided in the event that there is a runoff election. On the first ballot, the voter will vote for his or her preferred candidate as currently done during any election, however, the second ballot will be used to rank the candidates in order of preference. The California Association of Clerks and Election Officials notes that not only does the receipt of multiple ballots for the same election present confusion to overseas voters, it is also possible that other races and ballot measures may be added to the runoff ballot after the initial election. In these instances, a second runoff ballot would have to be sent which could result in considerable confusion for voters. The purpose of the special runoff ballot is to accommodate overseas voters who may not have sufficient time to receive, vote and return a regular runoff ballot in time for it to be counted by the close of polls on elections day. In California, runoff elections which sometimes occur in special elections held to fill vacancies in the Legislature or Congress are generally scheduled 8 or 9 weeks after the first round election, however, some cities have charters that require runoff elections to be held in a shorter timeframe making it sometimes difficult for overseas voters to receive, vote, and return their ballots on time.