BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS
AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Lou Correa, Chair
BILL NO: AB 985 HEARING DATE: 6/7/11
AUTHOR: WILLIAMS ANALYSIS BY:Frances Tibon
Estoista
AMENDED: AS INTRODUCED
FISCAL: NO
SUBJECT
Elections: official canvass: manual tally
DESCRIPTION
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 vote by mail
(VBM) ballots cast in those precincts.
Existing law provides that if one percent of the precincts
is less than one whole precinct, the tally shall be
conducted in one precinct chosen at random by the elections
official.
Existing law requires the elections official, in addition
to the one percent manual tally described above, to
manually tally at least one additional precinct for each
race that was not included in the initial group of
precincts that were a part of the one percent manual tally.
Provides that this additional manual tally shall apply
only to the race not previously counted.
This bill permits elections officials to conduct a two-part
public manual tally of ballots as part of the official
canvass of an election in which a voting system is used, in
lieu of conducting a public manual tally of the ballots
cast in one percent of the precincts.
This bill permits elections officials, in lieu of
conducting a public manual tally of the ballots cast in one
percent of the precincts, including VBM ballots, to conduct
a two-part public manual tally that includes both of the
following:
A public manual tally of the ballots, not including
VBM ballots, cast in one percent of the precincts
chosen at random by the elections official; and,
A public manual tally of not less than one percent of
the VBM ballots cast in the election.
This bill requires, for the purposes of conducting the
public manual tally of VBM ballots as part of this
alternate process, that the elections official choose
batches of VBM ballots at random. This bill defines a
"batch," as a set of ballots tabulated by the voting system
devices for which the voting system can produce a report of
the votes cast.
This bill requires an elections official who conducts the
manual tally using the alternate procedure authorized by
this bill, in addition to tallying not less than one
percent of VBM ballots, to count at least one additional
batch of VBM ballots for each race not included in the
initial manual tally of VBM ballots.
This bill provides that this additional manual tally shall
apply only to the race not previously counted, and permits
the elections official to select additional batches to be
manually tallied at his or her discretion.
This bill makes corresponding and clarifying changes.
BACKGROUND
One Percent Manual Tally : To help ensure that ballots are
counted accurately, state law requires the elections
official who conducts an election where a voting system is
used to conduct a public manual tally of ballots cast in
one percent of precincts in that election. The results of
this manual tally are compared against the tally of ballots
in those precincts that was generated by the automated vote
tallying system. Before the election results can be
certified, the elections official must reconcile any
discrepancies between the machine count and the manual
tally, and must report on how those discrepancies were
resolved.
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COMMENTS
1. According to the author , AB 985 provides county
elections officials' cost-cutting flexibility when
conducting the 1% post-election manual tally currently
required by law. This bill affords all counties the
option of conducting two separate 1% manual tallies.
One manual tally for precinct ballots and the other for
vote-by-mail (VBM) ballots for each election.
Existing law requires elections officials to conduct a
manual tally of 1% of randomly selected precincts for
each contest on the ballot. AB 1235 (Bowen) Chapter
893, Statutes of 2006, required election officials to
include vote-by-mail (VBM) ballots in the mandatory 1%
tally. As a result, VBM ballots must be sorted into
their respective precincts before the tally begins.
Depending on the voting system used by the county, this
is a very time consuming process, especially given the
increase in VBM voting.
In 2010, there were only two weeks between the Statewide
Direct Primary Election on June 8 and the Senate
District 15 Special Election on June 22, which involved
five counties. AB 46 (Monning), Chapter 28, Statues of
2010, gave four of those counties - San Luis Obispo,
Santa Barbara, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz - the option
to conduct the proposed separate 1% manual tallies for
each contest for the June 8, 2010, June 22, 2010 and
August 17, 2010, elections. One manual tally for
precinct ballots and another, separate, tally for all
VBM ballots.
Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, which
utilized the alternative option, found they were able
to conduct the 1% manual tally in a more efficient and
expeditious manner. Santa Barbara saved over 70% in
costs and time spent on conducting the manual tally and
San Luis Obispo saved over 90% in costs and time.
AB 985 provides all counties the option of conducting two
separate 1% manual tallies, creating a more efficient
system and saving counties both time and money while
maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the election.
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2. Prior Legislation : Among other provisions, SB 1235
(Bowen), Chapter 893, Statutes of 2006, requires county
elections officials to include VBM ballots in the
manual tally of votes cast in one percent of the
precincts. Prior to the adoption of SB 1235, some
counties did not believe that VBM ballots were required
to be included in the required manual tally of ballots
cast in one percent of precincts, and so were not
including those ballots.
Because VBM ballots typically are returned by mail, the
VBM ballots cast from a particular precinct are likely
to be spread out among all other VBM ballots, instead
of being batched together with the polling place
ballots from that precinct. As a result, elections
officials must sort the VBM ballots by precinct before
they can begin the manual tally of ballots under
existing law. This sorting process can take a
considerable amount of time, particularly if the
elections official does not have equipment that can
sort the ballots automatically.
Last year, the Legislature approved and the Governor
signed AB 46 (Monning), Chapter 28, Statutes of 2010.
AB 46 allowed four California counties to conduct
separate manual tallies of polling place ballots and
VBM ballots for elections held on three specified
dates. That bill was enacted to help ease the burden
on elections officials in those counties after Governor
Schwarzenegger scheduled a special primary election in
the 15th Senate District to be held just two weeks
after the statewide primary election in June last year.
The alternate manual tally procedure authorized by AB
46 was similar to the alternative manual tally
procedure that this bill would authorize elections
officials to use at any election. Those counties
reported that the two-part manual tally significantly
reduced the costs and time of conducting the manual
tally.
3. Arguments in Support : Julie Rodewald, the elected
County Clerk-Recorder and Registrar of Voters for San
Luis Obispo County writes:
San Luis Obispo County utilizes a voting system which
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segregates and reports vote-by-mail ballots by
precinct, even though the ballots are not physically
separated prior to counting. By counting the ballots
in batches of 200, the results from a batch can be
isolated and used to verify that the machines counted
the ballots correctly. . . . In 2006, Elections Code
§15360 was amended to require that all vote-by-mail
ballots be included in the 1% manual tally by precinct.
This requirement resulted in over 540 additional
staff hours to complete the manual tally process and
approximately $12,000 in additional costs for each
election. . . .
The simple procedural change outlined in AB 985 will
allow San Luis Obispo and other counties with similar
vote counting software to complete the manual tally in
a very cost effective manner, saving at least 540 hours
and $12,000 in staff costs for each election. More
importantly, this change will not affect the purpose of
the manual tally, which is to verify that the voting
machines have accurately counted and tallied the
results of the ballots cast.
PRIOR ACTION
Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee: 7-0
Assembly Floor: 73-0
POSITIONS
Sponsor: Secretary of State
Support: California Association of Clerks and Election
Officials
San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder and
Registrar of Voters
Santa Barbara County Registrar of Voters
Siskiyou County Clerk
Oppose: None received
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