BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS Senator Lou Correa, Chair BILL NO: AB 1724 HEARING DATE: 7/03/12 AUTHOR: FONG ANALYSIS BY: DARREN CHESIN AMENDED: 5/10/12 FISCAL: NO SUBJECT Voting: polling place procedures DESCRIPTION Existing law prohibits voters from remaining in or occupying the booths or compartments for longer than either five or 10 minutes unless a longer time period will not inconvenience other voters. This bill resolves the 5 versus ten minute conflict in existing law that governs the amount of time that a voter can spend in the voting booth in favor of the ten minute limit but permits a voter to receive additional time to mark his or her ballot when necessary. Specifically, this bill: Repeals a provision of law that prohibits voters from remaining in or occupying voting booths or compartments longer than five minutes, except under certain circumstances. This provision conflicts with another portion of existing law that prohibits voters from remaining in or occupying voting booths or compartments longer than 10 minutes. Permits any voter who needs more than 10 minutes to complete his or her ballot to inform a precinct board member of that fact and to receive additional time to complete the ballot. Provides that if a precinct board member determines that a voter is attempting to interfere with the conduct of the election and does not require additional time to mark his or her ballot, that precinct board member may contact the elections official, who may order that the voter not be provided with additional time to mark his or her ballot. Makes other conforming changes. BACKGROUND Take Five -- or Ten ? Existing law contains two conflicting provisions that set a limit on the amount of time that a voter can remain in a voting booth or compartment. Elections Code Section 14224 sets a 10 minute limit on the amount of time that a voter can remain in a voting booth or compartment to cast his or her ballot, while Elections Code Section 19363 sets a five minute limit. Elections Code Section 19363 is located in a part of the code dealing with lever voting machines - machines that are no longer used in this state. COMMENTS 1.According to the author , existing law contains two conflicting provisions that set a limit on the amount of time that a voter can remain in a voting booth or compartment. Section 14224 of the Elections Code provides that a voter may not remain in the voting booth longer than necessary to mark his or her ballot, but the total amount of time shall not exceed ten minutes. Section 19363 of the Elections Code, however, provides that a voter may not remain in the voting booth longer than necessary to mark his or her ballot, but the total amount of time shall not exceed five minutes. These conflicting standards can cause confusion for voters and for poll workers. Furthermore, since Section 19363 is in an area of the Elections Code that governs the use of lever voting machines (machines that are no longer used), that section is obsolete and should be repealed. Furthermore, the two existing code sections that establish a limit on how long a person can spend in the voting booth both allow voters to have additional time in the booth, but only if "no other voter would be AB 1724 (FONG) Page 2 inconvenienced." While many voters are able to complete their ballots in ten minutes, some voters need additional time to make their selections, especially at elections where there are a large number of offices and measures on the ballot. Those voters should be given the opportunity and time that they need to complete their ballots. AB 1724 resolves the conflict in existing law regarding the amount of time that a voter can spend in the voting booth by repealing Section 19363 of the Elections Code. As a result, voters will have ten minutes to mark their ballots. In order to protect the voting rights of voters who require additional time to mark their ballots, AB 1724 permits a voter to remain for longer than ten minutes if the voter informs a precinct board member that he or she requires additional time to mark the ballot. Finally, in order to ensure that the flexibility provided by this bill is not abused, AB 1724 allows an elections official to refuse to provide a voter with additional time to vote if that voter does not need additional time to mark his or her ballot but instead is attempting to interfere with the conduct of the election. 2.Previous Legislation . This bill is substantially similar to AB 686 (Ruskin) of 2009, which was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger. In his veto message, the Governor argued that there was "no evidence that the discrepancy in current law has resulted in a significant problem for voters." In addition, this bill is substantially similar to AB 3014 (Mullin) of 2008, which was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger, though the Governor did not express any policy objections to that bill. AB 3014 was one of the 136 bills that received the same veto message. That veto message read as follows: "The historic delay in passing the 2008-2009 State Budget has forced me to prioritize the bills sent to my desk at the end of the year's legislative session. Given the delay, I am only signing bills that are the highest priority for California. This bill does not meet that standard and I cannot sign it at AB 1724 (FONG) Page 3 this time." PRIOR ACTION Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee: 5-1 Assembly Floor: 72-3 POSITIONS Sponsor: Author Support: American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Secretary of State Oppose: None received AB 1724 (FONG) Page 4