BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2080
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 29, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Paul Fong, Chair
AB 2080 (Gordon) - As Amended: August 14, 2012
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|ASSEMBLY: | |(April 26, |SENATE: |22-14|(August 22, |
| | |2012) | | |2012) |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
(vote not relevant)
SUBJECT : Vote by mail ballots.
SUMMARY : Deletes a requirement that a voter must be ill or
disabled in order to have a family member or a person in the
same household return a vote by mail (VBM) ballot for that
voter.
The Senate amendments delete the Assembly version of the bill,
and instead:
1)Eliminate a requirement that a voter must be ill or disabled
in order for that voter to be able to designate his or her
spouse, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, brother,
sister, or other person residing in the same household as the
voter, to return the voter's VBM ballot to the elections
official from whom it came or to the precinct board at a
polling place within the jurisdiction.
2)Add double-jointing language to avoid chaptering problems with
AB 2054 (Fong).
EXISTING LAW permits a voter to designate his or her spouse,
child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, or a person
residing in the same household as the voter to return the
voter's VBM ballot if the voter is unable to return the ballot
due to illness or disability.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill provided that if 500 or
more signatures were submitted to an elections official on a
petition for the recall of a state officer, the elections
official could verify, using a random sampling technique, either
AB 2080
Page 2
3% of the signatures submitted or 500 signatures, whichever is
greater, instead of verifying the lesser of the two amounts.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown. This bill is keyed non-fiscal by the
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of the Bill : According to the author:
Vote-by-mail voting used to be limited to voters who
were either traveling on Election Day or home bound.
Voting by mail has become a significant tool of
convenience for busy voters and a means to potentially
increase participation. In recognition, California
law has evolved to facilitate rather than place
barriers in the way of voting by mail.
The public has responded and the percentage of voters
availing themselves of vote-by-mail has steadily
grown. Two decades ago, in the November 1990
election, 18.38% of voters used vote-by-mail. A
decade ago, in the November 2000 primary election,
24.53% of voters availed themselves of this option.
In the November 2010 election, the most recent
election for which there is data, 48.44% of voters
used vote-by-mail. In the June 2012 primary, 65% of
voters used vote-by-mail ballots.
AB 2080 would update the law regarding the
circumstances when a person other than the voter, can
drop off a voter's vote-by-mail ballot. Under existing
law, a voter's vote-by-mail ballot may be returned to
the local elections official or any polling place
within the jurisdiction on or before Election Day. If
the voter is unable to return the ballot due to
illness or other physical disability, the voter can
designate their spouse, child, parent, grandparent,
grandchild, brother, sister, or person residing in the
same household to return the vote by mail ballot.
Paid or volunteer workers for any committee,
controlled committee, political party, or candidate's
campaign committee are specifically prohibited from
returning a vote-by-mail ballot.
AB 2080
Page 3
In an effort to make participation easier without
eliminating existing safeguards, this bill simply
deletes the requirement that a voter be ill or
disabled in order to have his or her ballot returned
by someone else.
The current prohibition in current law on campaign
workers picking up or dropping off vote-by-mail
ballots would remain in place. Effectively, this bill
would remove barriers to participation while
maintaining existing safeguards against voter fraud.
2)Restrictions on Return of Vote by Mail Ballots : Existing law
limits the people who may pick up or drop off a VBM ballot for
a voter, generally restricting such activities to immediate
family members or people living in the same household as the
voter. Additionally, existing law requires a voter to return
his or her own VBM ballot, unless the voter is ill or
physically disabled. No such restriction applies when a
person is picking-up a VBM ballot for an immediate family
member or other voter living in the same household as that
person.
In light of these restrictions, existing law allows a person to
pick-up a ballot for his or her spouse regardless of whether
that spouse is ill or disabled, but prohibits that person from
returning his or her spouse's completed VBM ballot unless the
spouse is ill or physically disabled. Elections officials
indicate that this requirement is unenforceable, since they
have no way of verifying whether a voter is ill or disabled.
3)Arguments in Support : The sponsor of this bill, Secretary of
State Debra Bowen, writes in support:
Since 1995, voting by mail has become a popular and
convenient method of voting. In the November 2010
General Election, nearly 50% of the 10.3 million
people who voted did so by mail, and in some special
elections, the number has been as high as 84%.
Existing law allows a voter who, because of illness or
disability, is unable to return their VBM ballot on
Election Day to authorize a relative or person
residing in the same household to return their ballot.
AB 2080 removes the requirement that a voter be ill
AB 2080
Page 4
or disabled to have a relative or household member
return a VBM ballot to elections officials on Election
Day. This change makes this section of the law
consistent with EC 3009(b), which allows a relative or
person residing in the same household to pick up a
voters' ballot without any requirement that the voter
be ill or disabled.
4)Related and Previous Legislation : AB 2054 (Fong), allows a
voter to return his or her VBM ballot to any polling place
within the state, instead of being limited to polling places
within the jurisdiction of the elections official who issued
the ballot. AB 2054 is pending for concurrence in Senate
amendments on the Assembly Floor.
AB 867 (Swanson) of this legislative session would have
deleted the requirement that a voter must be ill or disabled
in order to designate another person to return that voter's
VBM ballot, among other provisions. AB 867 was approved by
this committee on a 5-2 vote and by the Assembly on a 48-28
vote, but subsequently was amended to address a different
issue
AB 1271 (Krekorian) of 2009, AB 1096 (Umberg) of 2005, and SB
462 (Karnette) of 2001, all proposed to delete the requirement
that a voter must be ill or disabled in order to designate
another person to return that voter's VBM ballot, among other
provisions. AB 1271 and AB 1096 vetoed by Governor
Schwarzenegger, who argued that the bills could lead to abuse
of the system. SB 462 was vetoed by Governor Davis, who
stated that it was "important to maintain the standard under
current law that a person be ill or disabled to request that
someone else submit" a voter's VBM ballot.
5)Prior Version : The prior version of this bill, which was
approved by the Assembly, dealt with the verification of
signatures on petitions for the recall of elected state
officers. 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
AB 2080
Page 5
Secretary of State Debra Bowen (sponsor)
California Association of Clerks and Election Officials
California State Association of Counties
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094