BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                      



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          |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE            |                  AB 1343|
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                                 THIRD READING


          Bill No:  AB 1343
          Author:   Fong (D)
          Amended:  As introduced
          Vote:     21

           
           SENATE ELECTIONS & CONST. AMEND. COMMITTEE  :  3-2, 6/8/11
          AYES:  Correa, De León, Lieu
          NOES:  La Malfa, Gaines

           ASSEMBLY FLOOR  :  50-26, 4/25/11 - See last page for vote


           SUBJECT  :    Vote by mail:  procedures

           SOURCE  :     California Association of Letter Carriers


           DIGEST  :    This bill requires a voter's name to be deleted 
          from the permanent vote by mail voter list if he/she fails 
          to return a vote-by-mail ballot for four consecutive 
          statewide general elections, instead of two consecutive 
          statewide general elections.

           ANALYSIS  :    Existing law allows any voter to become a 
          permanent vote-by-mail (PVBM) voter, and requires a voter's 
          name to be deleted from the PVBM voter list if he/she fails 
          to return an executed vote-by-mail (VBM) ballot for two 
          consecutive statewide general elections.

           Comments
           
           Permanent Vote by Mail Voting  :  AB 1520 (Shelley) Chapter 
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          922, Statutes of 2001, allows any voter to become a PVBM 
          voter.  Since that time, according to information from the 
          Secretary of State, the number of PVBM voters has increased 
          more than twenty-fold, from 281,207 in November 2000, to 
          6,485,143 in November 2010.

          Previous Legislation

           SB 39 (Murray), Chapter 113, Statutes of 2005, requires a 
          voter's name to be deleted from the PVBM voter list if 
          he/she failed to return a VBM ballot for two consecutive 
          statewide general elections, instead of failing to return a 
          VBM ballot in any single statewide general election. 

           FISCAL EFFECT  :    Appropriation:  No   Fiscal Com.:  No   
          Local:  No

           SUPPORT  :   (Verified  6/8/11)

          California State Association of Letter Carriers (source)
          California Labor Federation

           ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT  :    According to the author's office, 
          since 2002, California law has allowed any voter to become 
          a PVBM voter, and to receive automatically a VBM ballot for 
          every election without applying for a VBM ballot at each 
          election.  Since that time, the number of PVBM voters in 
          the state has shot up from fewer than 300,000 in 2000, to 
          nearly 6.5 million by last November's general election.  
          Three out of every eight registered California voters are 
          now signed-up as PVBM voters. 

          As the number of PVBM voters has increased, the percentage 
          of votes cast by mail has increased correspondingly.  At 
          last year's general election, nearly 60 percent of ballots 
          were cast by mail, compared to less than a quarter of 
          ballots just 10 years ago. 

          As more voters have signed up to be PVBM voters, however, a 
          larger number of occasional voters who prefer the 
          convenience of voting by mail have signed up to be PVBM 
          voters as well.  As a result, the percentage of VBM ballots 
          mailed to voters that are returned and counted has 
          declined. At last year's primary election, only 51 percent 

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          of VBM ballots that were mailed to voters were returned. 

          A voter who chose to become a PVBM voter because he or she 
          prefers the convenience of voting by mail has a reasonable 
          expectation of receiving a ballot in the mail for every 
          election in which that voter is eligible to vote.  However, 
          existing law requires a voter to be removed from the list 
          of PVBM voters if he or she fails to return a completed 
          PVBM ballot in two consecutive statewide general elections. 
           As a result, a voter who missed two consecutive elections 
          could be prevented from voting if that voter didn't realize 
          that his/her name was deleted from the PVBM voter list. 

          This bill allows occasional voters to maintain their 
          desired status as PVBM voters by providing that a voter's 
          name will be deleted from the list of PVBM voters only if 
          that voter fails to vote in four consecutive statewide 
          elections.

          The sponsor of this bill, the California State Association 
          of Letter Carriers writes, "Ýw]e believe that every 
          opportunity should be extended to allow qualified permanent 
          vote by mail voters to continue to remain on the permanent 
          vote by mail list.  Since its introduction, permanent vote 
          by mail in California has resulted in increased 
          participation among voters, been easier for election 
          officials to conduct, and has given voters a much longer 
          opportunity to study the ballot and find answers to their 
          questions prior to casting their votes."


          ASSEMBLY FLOOR  :  
          AYES:  Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Beall, Block, 
            Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan, 
            Butler, Charles Calderon, Campos, Carter, Cedillo, 
            Chesbro, Davis, Dickinson, Eng, Feuer, Fong, Fuentes, 
            Galgiani, Gordon, Hall, Hayashi, Roger Hernández, Hill, 
            Huber, Hueso, Huffman, Lara, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, 
            Mendoza, Mitchell, Monning, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel Pérez, 
            Portantino, Skinner, Solorio, Swanson, Torres, 
            Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, John A. Pérez
          NOES:  Achadjian, Bill Berryhill, Conway, Cook, Donnelly, 
            Fletcher, Garrick, Gatto, Grove, Hagman, Halderman, 
            Harkey, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Logue, Mansoor, Miller, 

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            Morrell, Nestande, Nielsen, Norby, Silva, Smyth, Valadao, 
            Wagner
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Furutani, Gorell, Olsen, Vacancy


          DLW:do  6/8/11   Senate Floor Analyses 

                         SUPPORT/OPPOSITION:  SEE ABOVE

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