BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1200
Page 1
Date of Hearing: March 5, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Paul Fong, Chair
AB 1200 (Ma) - As Amended: February 28, 2012
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
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|ASSEMBLY: | |(June 2, 2011) |SENATE: |31-1 |(March 1, |
| | | | | |2012) |
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(vote not relevant)
SUBJECT : Elections: central committees.
SUMMARY : Makes numerous substantive changes to state laws
governing the conduct of central committee elections.
The Senate amendments delete the Assembly version of this bill,
and instead:
1)Eliminate a requirement for elections officials to issue a
certificate of election to each elected member of a political
party's county central committee.
2)Permit the chairperson of the county central committee, his or
her immediate predecessor, or a designee of the chairperson or
his or her immediate predecessor, to administer the oath of
office or affirmation to members of the county central
committee for the Democratic, Republican, or American
Independent Parties. Repeal a requirement that no fee be
charged by any person before whom such an oath is taken or
subscribed.
3)Repeal a provision of law that allows the county central
committee for the Democratic Party in Sacramento County to
provide, by resolution, for the election of 25 central
committee members to represent individual central committee
districts, as specified. Repeal a requirement that the county
central committee in Sacramento County reapportion itself at
least every 10 years, as specified.
4)Require the elected members of the county central committee
for the Democratic Party in Sacramento County to be elected by
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supervisor districts with six members elected from each
district. Require each member to be a resident of the county
and supervisor district that he or she represents, and permit
a voter to vote only for candidates seeking to represent the
supervisor district in which the voter resides.
5)Provide that the number of members elected from each Assembly
district in Alameda County to the county central committee for
the Democratic Party shall be determined proportionally based
on the number of votes cast in the portion of the district
located in Alameda County for the Democratic candidate for
Governor at the last gubernatorial election, as specified,
instead of electing six members from each Assembly district.
Provide that the central committee shall include at least 30
members.
6)Provide that of the 24 members of the county central committee
for the Democratic Party in the City and County of San
Francisco, 14 shall be elected from the Assembly district in
San Francisco that has a majority of registered Democrats in
the city and county, and 10 shall be elected from the Assembly
district that has the minority of registered Democrats,
instead of requiring 12 members to be elected each from
Assembly Districts 12 and 13. Define "registered Democrat,"
for these purposes, as a voter who has expressed a preference
for the Democratic Party on his or her affidavit of
registration as of the 154th day prior to the first direct
primary election after any redistricting of Assembly district
boundaries. Require the San Francisco Department of
Elections, or a successor agency, to calculate the percentage
of the total registered Democrats in each Assembly district in
the city and county.
7)Provide that of the 25 members of the county central committee
for the Republican Party in the City and County of San
Francisco, the Assembly district that consists of the majority
of the registered Republicans in the city and county shall
elect 13 members plus one additional member for each four
percent of the registered Republicans in the district above a
majority of the registered Republicans in the city and county,
and the remainder of the members shall be elected from the
Assembly district that consists of the minority of the
registered Republicans, instead of requiring 13 members to be
elected from Assembly District 12 and 12 members from Assembly
District 13. Define "registered Republican," for these
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purposes, as a voter who has expressed a preference for the
Republican Party on his or her affidavit of registration as of
the 154th day prior to the first direct primary election after
any redistricting of Assembly district boundaries. Require
the San Francisco Department of Elections, or a successor
agency, to calculate the percentage of the total registered
Republicans in each Assembly district in the city and county.
8)Repeal requirements that the person who is elected chairperson
of a Republican county central committee at its organizational
meeting notify the elections official of his or her name
within five days of that meeting, and that the elections
official mail a certificate to that effect to the Secretary of
State (SOS).
9)Repeal a requirement that the county central committee for the
American Independent Party in Los Angeles County meet at its
county seat in a centrally located public auditorium
sufficient to accommodate its membership. Repeal a
requirement that county central committees for the American
Independent Party in all other counties meet in the courthouse
at the county seat. Transfer the responsibility for calling a
meeting of each county central committee of the American
Independent Party from the elections official of the county to
the chairperson of the county central committee, or his or her
immediate predecessor.
10)Repeal a requirement that the SOS, under specified
circumstances, ascertain who the chairperson is of the state
central committee of the Peace and Freedom Party and mail a
certificate to that effect to the elections official of each
county.
11)Provide, for the June 5, 2012 statewide primary election
only, that a signer of a nomination paper for a candidate for
the Sacramento Democratic Central Committee, the San Francisco
Democratic Central Committee, or the San Francisco Republican
Central Committee, need not reside in the district in which
the candidate is to be voted on as long as the signer is a
resident of the county and is registered as disclosing a
preference for the political party of the central committee to
which the candidate is seeking to be elected.
12)Add an urgency clause, allowing this bill to take effect
immediately upon enactment.
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EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires each member of a county central committee for certain
political parties to take an oath or affirmation before any
officer authorized to administer oaths prior to entering upon
the duties of office. Prohibits a fee from being charged by
any person before whom the oath is taken or subscribed.
2)Entitles members elected to county central committees to
receive a certificate of election prepared by the elections
official.
3)Provides the manner in which members are elected to county
central committees, which varies by political party and from
county to county depending upon certain factors, such as the
number of Assembly districts that exist within the county.
4)Requires signers of a candidate's nomination papers to be
voters in the district or political subdivision in which the
candidate is to be voted on, and requires, with respect to
candidacy for partisan office, that that signers be registered
voters who disclosed a preference for the political party in
which the nomination is proposed.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill required a local public
agency operating a combined sewer and stormwater system to
implement a notification plan to inform the public of a
discharge from the system that occurred near a recreational
beach.
FISCAL EFFECT : Keyed non-fiscal by the Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of the Bill : According to the author:
AB 1200 (Ma) makes various changes to the method of
electing central committees in response to the impacts
of the new top 2 primary process and recent
redistricting.
In 2010, voters adopted Proposition 14 which created
the new "top 2" primary system that will first be used
statewide in June of this year. One of the lesser
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known components of Proposition 14 is that it put
central committee elections in the state constitution.
These often obscure offices were thus given added
importance at the same time that local election
officials are struggling with the additional
challenges and burdens presented by the top 2 primary.
County election officials have thus asked for several
changes to the rules governing the conduct of central
committee elections to reduce the challenges they
present.
In addition, in 2008 voters adopted Proposition 11
which created the Citizens Redistricting Commission.
Last year the Commission adopted new boundaries for
California's Assembly, Senate, Congressional and Board
of Equalization Districts. As many county central
committees organize themselves by Assembly District,
these new district boundaries for state offices
directly impact the organization of the political
parties as well. In some situations, the new state
boundaries conflict with existing statutes governing
the organization of central committees. For example,
current law states both the San Francisco Democratic
and Republican central committees shall be organized
by Assembly Districts 12 and 13. However, under the
new boundaries, San Francisco will instead by
represented by Assembly Districts 17 and 19.
AB 1200 makes several changes to ease the
administrative challenges for local election
officials. First, it eliminates certificates of
election for central committees. These are ceremonial
documents not required for the political parties to
conduct their business. Second, it transfers the
responsibility for swearing in their members from the
local election officials to the parties themselves.
Third, it eliminates a unique provision that places
special responsibilities on local election officials
to organize the first meetings of the American
Independent Party.
AB 1200 also makes several changes to the organization
of various county central committees in response to
the new district boundaries. For San Francisco, AB
1200 changes references to Assembly Districts 12 and
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13 to Assembly Districts 19 and 17 respectively, and
makes changes to the proportional make-up. For
Sacramento, AB 1200 changes the method of organizing
the Democratic central committee from Assembly
District to Supervisorial District. For Alameda, AB
1200 changes the method of organizing its central
committees from having an equal number of members from
each Assembly District to a proportional system.
2)Internal Governance : In Eu v. San Francisco County Democratic
Central Committee (1989), 489 U.S. 214, the United States
Supreme Court examined the right of a state to impose laws
relating to the internal affairs of political parties. The
Court found that laws burdening the associational rights of
political parties and their members must serve a compelling
state interest. Therefore, because a state has a compelling
interest in preserving the integrity of its election process,
it may properly enact laws that interfere with a political
party's internal affairs when necessary to ensure that
elections are fair and honest. (For example, a state may
properly impose certain eligibility requirements for voters in
the general election, even though they limit the ability of
political parties to garner support and members, where such
requirements are necessary to ensure that elections are fair
and honest.) However, a state cannot justify regulating a
party's internal affairs without showing that such regulation
is necessary to ensure an election that is orderly and fair.
In Eu , the Court reiterated that a political party's
determination of the structure which best allows it to pursue
its political goals is protected by the Federal Constitution
( Tashijian v. Republican Party of Connecticut (1986), 479 U.S.
208 at 224) and further held that freedom of association also
encompasses a political party's decisions about the identity
of, and the process for electing, its leaders. Thus, unless
the state can show that the particular internal party
structure would interfere with the integrity of the electoral
process or some other compelling state interest, the political
parties have a constitutional right to be free from state
regulations in the matter of their internal affairs.
In light of the constitutionally protected rights of political
parties, the Legislature frequently has changed provisions of
the Elections Code at the request of political parties to
reflect those parties' desired methods of electing members to
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party central committees (see "Previous Legislation" below).
3)Central Committee Elections and District Numbers : For both
the Democratic and Republican Party central committees in San
Francisco, existing state law requires a specified number of
members to be elected from Assembly Districts 12 and 13.
However, the new Assembly districts that were adopted by the
California Citizens Redistricting Commission last August place
Assembly District 12 in San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties,
and place Assembly District 13 in San Joaquin County. On the
other hand, all of Assembly District 17 and most of Assembly
District 19 are located in the city and county of San
Francisco.
This bill updates provisions of state law governing central
committee elections in San Francisco so that those provisions
do not refer to specific Assembly district numbers.
Additionally, this bill changes the allocation of seats and
the method by which members are elected to the Democratic
county central committees in Alameda, Sacramento, and San
Francisco, and to the Republican county central committee in
San Francisco. These changes to the allocation of seats and
the method by which members are elected to county central
committees all were requested by the relevant central
committees.
4)Related Legislation : SB 1272 (Kehoe) provides that political
party central committee elections will be conducted only every
four years at the presidential primary election, instead of
every two years at the statewide direct primary election,
among other provisions. SB 1272 is awaiting referral to a
policy committee in the Senate.
5)Previous Legislation : AB 1396 (Torres), Chapter 392, Statutes
of 2009, repealed various provisions of the Elections Code
governing the membership and operations of the state central
committee of the Democratic Party of California, and instead
required that the standing rules and bylaws of the Party
govern the membership and operations of the state central
committee.
AB 965 (Anderson), Chapter 60, Statutes of 2007, provided that
the membership of the state central committee of the
California Republican Party shall be as set forth in the
standing rules and bylaws of the California Republican Party,
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among other provisions.
AB 1054 (Bogh), Chapter 65, Statutes of 2005, required that
Republican central committee members in San Bernardino County
be elected by county board of supervisor districts instead of
Assembly districts and established a minimum of 30 members for
the committee.
SB 1436 (Oller), Chapter 257, Statutes of 2002, required that
Republican central committee members in Sacramento and Santa
Clara counties be elected by county board of supervisor
districts instead of Assembly districts.
6)Prior Version : The prior version of this bill, which was
approved by the Assembly, dealt with notification to the
public when a discharge occurred from a combined sewer and
stormwater system near a recreational beach. Those provisions
were removed from this bill in the Senate, and the current
contents were added. As a result, this bill has been
re-referred to this committee pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.2.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Alameda County Democratic Central Committee
Butte County Clerk-Recorder/Registrar of Voters
California Association of Clerks and Election Officials
California Democratic Party Chair John Burton
Democratic Party of Sacramento County
San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094