BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
AB 477 (Valadao)
Hearing Date: 8/25/2011 Amended: 4/05/2011
Consultant: Maureen Ortiz Policy Vote: E&CA: 5-0
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 477 provides that special absentee voter
ballots will be counted if they are postmarked on or before
elections day and received by the voter's elections official no
later than ten days after election day.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Fund
Admin costs -----unknown, likely over
$50 per election---- General*
*Reimbursable Local Mandate
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STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE.
Under existing law, all ballots must be received by the
elections official from whom they were obtained or by the
precinct board no later than the close of polls on election day.
This bill will require special absentee ballots to be counted
if they are postmarked by elections day and received within ten
days after the election. If each county incurs expenses of
only $1,000 in additional staff time, the reimbursable costs
from the General Fund would be $58,000.
For the November 2008 general election, about 1,900 (2.8%) of
the 69,800 overseas ballots returned were rejected for arriving
after election day. However, the number of late ballots that
counties receive will likely increase as the behavior of voters
change as a result of this bill. It is likely that
substantially more voters will mail their ballots closer to the
day of the election (rather than a couple of weeks early, for
example) once the provisions of AB 477 are enacted resulting in
tens of thousands of ballots arriving during the new ten-day
AB 477 (Valadao)
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window and necessitating that county election officials manually
check every ballot to determine if it is postmarked on or before
the date of the election. Very often, postmarks are missing or
illegible. According to a survey by counties, during the June
2010 statewide election, 28% of the ballots received late had
missing or illegible postmarks or were postmarked after the
election, and 40% were so during the November 2010 election.
County election officials indicate concerns about having to
manually verify the postmark on all ballots that are received
after the close of polls, but up to ten days after the election,
and also there is concern about slowing the canvass process due
to the excessive number of late ballots. Among other issues,
the counties have expressed concerns that postmarks are often
missing or illegible.
Eleven states currently allow Vote-By-Mail (VBM) ballots to be
counted as long as they are postmarked by elections day, and
twenty states provide additional time for special absentee
ballots (overseas military voters) to be returned.
"Special absentee voter" is a voter who meets any of the
following:
- A member of the Armed Forces of the United States or any
auxiliary branch.
- A citizen of the U. S. temporarily living outside of the
territorial limits of the U. S. or the District of Columbia.
- Service on a merchant vessel documented under the laws of the
United States.
- A spouse or dependent of a member of the Armed Forces or any
auxiliary branch thereof.
Current law allows special absentee voters to register to vote,
apply for, receive and return their ballots by facsimile
transmission. Additionally, special absentee ballots can be
requested as early as 60 days prior to an election, while VBM
ballots are not provided until 29 days prior to an election.
SB 802 (Runner), pending in the Senate Elections and
Constitutional Amendment Committee, will allow special absentee
AB 477 (Valadao)
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ballots to be counted if they are received 21 days after an
election, while AB 896 (Portantino), which recently failed
passage in the Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee,
is similar to this bill. Last year, several similar bills
failed passage during the legislative process including AB 1340
(Lowenthal), SB 583 (Dutton), SB 370 (Runner), AB 1367
(Fletcher), and AB 1415 (Adams).
Counties have 28 days after an election to canvass the vote and
then certify the election results. By allowing ballots to
arrive and be counted ten days after an election, many larger
counties may have difficulties in meeting the 28 day deadline.