BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 985|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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CONSENT
Bill No: AB 985
Author: Williams (D), et al.
Amended: As introduced
Vote: 21
SENATE ELECTIONS & CONST. AMENDMENTS COMM. : 5-0, 6/8/11
AYES: Correa, La Malfa, De León, Gaines, Lieu
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 73-0, 5/2/11 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT : Elections: official canvass: manual tally
SOURCE : Secretary of State
DIGEST : 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.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1. 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. Provides that if
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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.
2. 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:
1. 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. 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
B. A public manual tally of not less than one percent
of the VBM ballots cast in the election.
2. 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. Defines a "batch," for the
purposes of this bill, as a set of ballots tabulated by
the voting system devices for which the voting system
can produce a report of the votes cast.
3. 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. Provides that this
additional manual tally shall apply only to the race not
previously counted. Permits the elections official to
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select additional batches to be manually tallied at
his/her discretion.
4. Makes corresponding and clarifying changes.
Comments
Purpose of the bill . This bill provides county elections
officials' cost-cutting flexibility when conducting the one
percent post-election manual tally currently required by
law. This bill affords all counties the option of
conducting two separate one percent manual tallies. One
manual tally for precinct ballots and the other for VBM
ballots for each election.
Existing law requires elections officials to conduct a
manual tally of one percent of randomly selected precincts
for each contest on the ballot. AB 1235 (Bowen) Chapter
893, Statutes of 2006, required election officials to
include VBM ballots in the mandatory one percent 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 one percent 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
one percent manual tally in a more efficient and
expeditious manner. Santa Barbara saved over 70 percent in
costs and time spent on conducting the manual tally and San
Luis Obispo saved over 90 percent in costs and time.
This bill provides all counties the option of conducting
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two separate one percent manual tallies, creating a more
efficient system and saving counties both time and money
while maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the
election.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/8/11)
Secretary of State Debra Bowen (source)
California Association of Clerks and Election Officials
Colleen Setzer, County Clerk, County of Siskiyou
Joseph Holland, Registrar of Voters, Santa Barbara County
Julie Rodewald, County Clerk-Recorder and Registrar of
Voters, San Luis Obispo County
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : In support of this bill, 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
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."
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ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Beall,
Bill Berryhill, Block, Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford,
Brownley, Buchanan, Butler, Campos, Carter, Cedillo,
Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Davis, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eng,
Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Furutani, Garrick, Gatto, Gordon,
Grove, Hagman, Halderman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Hill,
Huber, Hueso, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Lara,
Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mansoor, Miller, Mitchell,
Monning, Morrell, Nestande, Nielsen, Norby, Olsen, Pan,
Perea, V. Manuel Pérez, Portantino, Silva, Skinner,
Smyth, Solorio, Swanson, Torres, Valadao, Wagner,
Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, John A. Pérez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Charles Calderon, Fuentes, Galgiani,
Gorell, Roger Hernández, Mendoza, Vacancy
DLW:mw 6/8/11 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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