BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 2054
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   April 25, 2012

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                    AB 2054 (Fong) - As Amended:  March 28, 2012 

          Policy Committee:                              ElectionsVote:4-2

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program: 
          Yes    Reimbursable:              Yes

           SUMMARY  

          This bill:

          1)Allows vote-by-mail (VBM) voters to return their ballots to 
            any polling place within the state-not just one within the 
            jurisdiction of the elections official who issued the ballot.

          2)Provides that, if a VBM ballot is returned to a polling place 
            in a county other than the county where the ballot was issued, 
            the elections official responsible for that polling place must 
            forward the ballot to the elections official who issued the 
            ballot.

           FISCAL EFFECT 

          Minor annual reimburseable costs for each county to collect and 
          return other (probably mostly neighboring) counties' ballots. 
          Assuming $1,000 per county, total costs would be $58,000.

          ÝThe governor's proposed 2012-13 budget would continue the 
          current-year suspension of all six elections-related mandates, 
          including requirements for counties to allow any voter to become 
          a permanent vote-by-mail (VBM) voter and to tabulate VBM ballots 
          by precinct.]

           COMMENTS  

           1)Background and Purpose  . During a joint hearing earlier this 
            year of the Assembly Committee on Elections and Redistricting 
            and the Senate Committee on Elections and Constitutional 
            Amendments, five county elections officials testified to the 
            impact that recent post office and processing facility 








                                                                  AB 2054
                                                                  Page  2

            closures were having with respect to delivery time delays. 
            Some counties experienced delays of up to 5-7 days as opposed 
            to the usual 1-3 day mail delivery time. Moreover, the U.S. 
            Postal Service has 15 more processing facilities slated for 
            closure in California

            According to the author, AB 2054 will help to ameliorate the 
            above situation by providing VBM voters the option of 
            returning their voted ballot to any polling place in the 
            state.

           2)Prior Legislation  . Last year, AB 199 (Correa), a substantially 
            similar bill, was vetoed by Governor Brown, who argued that 
            the bill would "add complexity to the voting and election 
            process without commensurate benefits." This action, however, 
            precedes the attention and concern about the potential impacts 
            of postal facility closures.

            In 2007, AB 773 (Blakeslee), which was essentially identical 
            to this bill, was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger, who 
            argued that the added convenience that the bill provided for a 
            small number of voters did not justify the additional mandated 
            costs to counties.

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081