BILL ANALYSIS Ó ------------------------------------------------------------ |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 66| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 445-6614 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ------------------------------------------------------------ THIRD READING Bill No: SB 66 Author: Vargas (D) Amended: 1/6/11 Vote: 27 - Urgency SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE : 9-0, 2/16/10 AYES: Wolk, Huff, DeSaulnier, Fuller, Hancock, Hernandez, Kehoe, La Malfa, Liu SUBJECT : Imperial County: registrar of voters SOURCE : Author DIGEST : This bill authorizes the Imperial County Board of Supervisors to appoint a registrar of voters separate from the county clerk. ANALYSIS : State law authorizes supervisors in 11 counties (El Dorado, Kings, Lake, Marin, Merced, Monterey, Napa, Riverside, San Joaquin, Solano, and Tulare) to appoint a registrar of voters separate from the county clerk. Supervisors in six of those counties separately appoint a registrar of voters. In Mono County, voters authorized county supervisors to appoint a county clerk-recorder-registrar of voters. The California Constitution allows a county to adopt a voter-approved charter that provides for consolidating and separating county officers and specifies the manner of filling vacant county offices. The registrar of voters is CONTINUED SB 66 Page 2 an appointed office in eight of the 14 charter counties. This bill authorizes the Imperial County Board of Supervisors to appoint a registrar of voters separate from the county clerk. Comments In 2009, Imperial County supervisors passed an ordinance that transferred, on January 3, 2011, the registrar of voters' duties from the county clerk-recorder to a separate, appointed registrar of voters. However, because Imperial County is a general law county, state law must be changed to authorize this reorganization. FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local: No SUPPORT : (Verified 2/16/11) American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Imperial County Board of Supervisors AGB:mw 2/16/11 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE **** END ****