BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
1340 (Lowenthal)
Hearing Date: 8/12/2010 Amended: 8/17/2009
& as proposed to be amended
Consultant: Maureen Ortiz Policy Vote: ER&CA 5-0
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 1340 allows special absentee voters to have
their ballot counted if it is postmarked on or before election
day and received by the county election official on or before
the sixth day after the election. The bill also requires
counties to report to the Secretary of State on the number of
absentee ballots received, as specified.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund
Ballot processing/report -------likely less than $50
per election------- General*
SOS report -------unknown,
potentially significant------- General
*Reimbursable state mandate
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STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE.
While counties have expressed concerns about tracking and
counting ballots received after the close of polls on election
day - a time when officials are busy canvassing the votes -
reimbursable costs would very likely be less than $50,000 per
statewide election for this provision in the bill. An estimate
of processing 2,500 ballots, one staff hour per ballot, with
costs of $15 per hour would result in about $37,500 for each
election. Additional costs would be incurred for reporting the
specified information to the Secretary of State. The Secretary
of State's (SOS) office has indicated potentially significant
costs for collecting the data from counties and reporting to the
Legislature for each and every election held. Since the SOS
does not currently oversee local elections, counties are not now
reporting those results to the SOS.
Current law provides that a ballot must be received by the close
of polls on election day in order to be counted, and further,
allows counties up to 28 days after the election to complete the
canvassing of the vote.
AB 1340 will allow special absentee voters who are temporarily
living outside of the territorial limits of the United States,
or are called for military service within the United States on
or after the final date to make application for a vote by mail
ballot, to return their ballot by mail. These ballots will be
counted as long as they are postmarked on or before election
day, and are received by the voter's county elections official
on or before the sixth day following the election. There were
approximately 69,800 overseas ballots returned for the November
2008 election of which about 2,500 were returned too late to be
counted.
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AB 1340 (Lowenthal)
Additionally, AB 1340 requires the county elections officials to
report the following information to the Secretary of State
within 30 days after the certification of an election:
a) The total number of special absentee ballots for which an
application was received for the election,
b) The total number of special absentee ballots delivered by
the elections official,
c) The total number of voted special absentee ballots received,
and how many of those ballots were received before the close of
polls, how many were received after the polls closed but on or
before the sixth day after the election, and how many were
received later than the sixth day after the election, and,
d) The total number of special absentee ballots received that
were not postmarked on or before election day.
Current federal law requires counties to report certain
information on military and overseas voters to the Secretary of
State for every federal general election. However, that
information does not include the detailed breakdown required in
this bill, and is not required for local elections.
The Secretary of State will be required to compile the above
information received from the counties, and report to the
Legislature within 60 days.
Over the last six years, the Legislature has made a number of
changes to facilitate voting by military voters and other
California residents who are outside of the United States.
Those provisions include: a) making all overseas voters
permanent vote by mail voters, 2) requiring that all overseas
voters be mailed a ballot 60 days before the election to ensure
the voter has time to receive, complete, and return his or her
ballot, 3) allowing the elections official to send an overseas
voter a ballot via electronic transmission, and 4) allowing
special absentee voters to return their ballots by facsimile
transmission.
Allowing ballots that are received after the close of polls to
be counted will result in counties beginning the canvass of the
vote before all of the ballots have been received. It should be
noted that all other vote-by-mail voters must get their ballots
to the elections official by the close of polls on elections day
in order to be counted.
Proposed author's amendments will limit the reporting
requirement to federal general elections only.