BILL ANALYSIS ------------------------------------------------------------ |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2467| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ------------------------------------------------------------ THIRD READING Bill No: AB 2467 Author: Monning (D) Amended: 7/15/10 in Senate Vote: 21 SENATE ELEC., REAP. & CONST. AMEND. COMM. : 3-1, 6/29/10 AYES: Hancock, DeSaulnier, Liu NOES: Strickland NO VOTE RECORDED: Denham ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 71-0, 5/10/10 - See last page for vote SUBJECT : Elections: vote by mail (VBM) SOURCE : Secretary of State DIGEST : This bill deletes the requirement that an electronic vote-by-mail (VBM) application include the date the application must be received by the elections officials, and requires an electronic application for a VBM ballot to inform the voter that the application for the VBM ballot must be received by the elections official not later than seven days prior to the date of the election. Senate Floor Amendments of 7/15/10 make a uniform wording change within another Elections Code section dealing with processing of VBM ballots. This change was inadvertently left out of the bill when it was last amended. It specifically provides that the specific statements related to voting be substantially similar to those statements CONTINUED AB 2467 Page 2 currently found in the existing provisions. ANALYSIS : Existing law provides that a VBM ballot is available to any registered voter. Existing law provides that a specific format be used on any printed application that is to be distributed to voters for requesting VBM ballots including, but not limited to the following: A. The printed name and residence address of the voter as it appears on the affidavit of registration. B. The address to which the ballot is to be mailed. C. The voter's signature. D. The name and date of the election for which the request is to be made. E. The date the application must be received by the elections official. Existing law requires that an elections official receive a request in writing from a voter requesting a VBM application between the 29th and the 7th day prior to the election. Existing law requires the Secretary of State (SOS) to prepare and distribute to appropriate elections officials a uniform application format for a VBM ballot. This bill requires that a printed application that is to be distributed to a voter requesting a VBM ballot shall inform the voter that the application for the VBM ballot must be received by the elections official not later than seven days prior to the date of the election. This bill deletes the requirement that an electronic VBM application include the date the application must be received by the elections officials. AB 2467 Page 3 This bill requires an electronic application for a VBM ballot to inform the voter that the application for the VBM ballot must be received by the elections official not later than seven days prior to the date of the election. This bill makes other clarifying changes to statements on both the printed and the uniform electronic VBM application. Background Current law requires the SOS to prepare and distribute to elections officials a uniform electronic VBM application that must include specific instructions. For example, the application must include spaces for the voter to fill in their name and residence address, the address to which the ballot is to be mailed, the date of birth of the registered voter, the name and date of the election, as well as the date the application must be received by the elections official. The SOS posts the required format for a statewide vote-by-mail ballot application online. County election officials must follow this format when distributing vote-by-mail ballot applications and by law, the voter has to fill in the correct date of the election, as well as the correct date for the last day the application must be received. According to the author's office, this bill clarifies and makes the process of filling out a VBM ballot application more user friendly for voters by eliminating the requirement that the voter know and fill in specific dates when submitting the application. FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local: No SUPPORT : (Verified 6/30/10) Secretary of State (source) ASSEMBLY FLOOR : AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Bass, Beall, AB 2467 Page 4 Bill Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield, Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Charles Calderon, Carter, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Davis, De Leon, Emmerson, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick, Gilmore, Hagman, Hall, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill, Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Lieu, Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Miller, Monning, Nava, Nestande, Niello, Nielsen, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino, Ruskin, Salas, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Audra Strickland, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres, Torrico, Tran, Villines, Yamada, John A. Perez NO VOTE RECORDED: Coto, De La Torre, DeVore, Harkey, Mendoza, Norby, Saldana, Solorio, Vacancy DLW:do 8/3/10 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE **** END ****