BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS
AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Norma J. Torres, Chair
BILL NO: AB 214 HEARING DATE: 6/4/13
AUTHOR: SKINNER ANALYSIS BY: Frances Tibon
Estoista
AMENDED: 5/28/13
FISCAL: YES
SUBJECT
Voting: state of emergency
DESCRIPTION
Existing law designates the Secretary of State (SOS) as the
chief elections officer of California.
Existing law permits the Governor, during a state of war or a
state of emergency, to suspend any regulation or statute
prescribing the procedure for conduct of state business, or the
orders, rules, or regulations of any state agency.
Existing law permits the Governor, during a state of war
emergency or state of emergency, to make, amend, and rescind
orders and regulations that have the force and effect of law.
Existing law further requires all orders, regulations,
amendments, or rescissions be issued in writing and take effect
immediately upon their issuance.
Existing law requires the orders and regulations to have no
further force or effect once the state of war emergency or state
of emergency has been terminated.
Existing law requires elections officials to provide a
sufficient number of official ballots in each precinct on
Election Day, as specified, and further requires the elections
official to provide additional ballots that may be necessary for
vote by mail and emergency purposes.
Existing law permits elections officials to set up satellite
voting locations, and further requires the elections official,
when setting up a satellite location, to issue a general news
release not later than 14 days prior to voting at the satellite
location.
Existing law requires a county with a declared emergency or
disaster to issue a public notice not later than 48 hours prior
to voting at the satellite location.
Existing law requires an elections official, upon the
declaration of a state of emergency by the Governor and the
issuance of an executive order authorizing an emergency worker
to cast a ballot outside of his or her home precinct, to issue
an emergency worker a provisional ballot.
Existing law defines an emergency worker as a person who is
officially engaged in responding to the proclaimed state of
emergency and whose vocation has been identified in an executive
order relating to the state of emergency.
This bill requires the SOS, in consultation with county
elections officials to establish procedures and guidelines for
voting in the event of a natural disaster or other state of
emergency by December 31, 2014.
This bill requires the SOS to publish the procedures and
guidelines on his or her Internet Web site.
This bill requires the SOS to submit a report to the Legislature
on the readiness of the state to hold elections during or
following a natural disaster or other state of emergency.
This bill requires the report to be submitted in accordance with
current law, and makes this requirement inoperative on December
31, 2018.
BACKGROUND
Efforts on the Federal Level : To support state efforts aimed at
establishing sound administrative election practices in
emergency conditions, the members of the National Association of
Secretaries of State (NASS), earlier this year, created the NASS
Task Force on Emergency Preparedness for Elections. The task
force is a national initiative, formed in the wake of Hurricane
Sandy, which struck the East Coast just days before the
presidential election on November 6, 2012. The effort, which
includes chief state election officials from twenty-two states
and the District of Columbia, will focus on identifying laws and
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practices that enhance the ability of state election officials
to prepare for, and respond to, emergency situations. The task
force also works closely with other stakeholder organizations,
including the National Emergency Management Association and the
Federal Emergency Management Agency. Secretary of State Debra
Bowen is a member of the newly formed task force.
According to the NASS website, the task force convened a
conference call in March to determine the range of issues that
will be researched. Emergency planning and response issues that
arose due to Hurricane Sandy included emergency voting/absentee
ballot procedures, state-local/municipal information sharing and
emergency communications, equipment shortages, emergency
authority issues, and continuity of elections. Additionally,
the task force is planning to release a white paper early next
year.
Other States : According to the NASS Task Force on Emergency
Preparedness for Elections, the following states have emergency
response laws in place authorizing election contingency plans in
the event of an emergency: Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa,
Louisiana, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, and Virginia. In
addition, Delaware, Connecticut, and South Dakota have enacted
election-related state of emergency statutes within the last two
years. This year, Alabama and Oklahoma have introduced laws
authorizing election contingency plans in the event of an
emergency.
COMMENTS
1. According to the Author : The rights to vote and to have
one's vote counted are fundamental tenets of a democracy and
are explicitly guaranteed by the Constitution of California.
Unpredictable natural disasters, many of which, such as
wildfires, storms, floods, and earthquakes, are common in
California, reduce voting accessibility. National attention
was brought to this issue when "Superstorm" Sandy made
landfall in the United States on October 29, 2012, eight days
before the general election, displacing tens of thousands and
interfering with the ability of those affected by the storm
to vote. Natural disasters on a similar scale have impacted
California before, though not so close to an election; for
example, the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake displaced more than
12,000 people, and the 1994 Northridge earthquake displaced
more than 20,000.
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This bill will help to ensure Californians' voting rights are
not hindered by natural disasters. The guidelines and
practices that will be developed as a result of this bill
will lead to the development of contingency plans that the
state can fall back on in the case of a natural disaster or
other emergency. And the report on the preparedness of the
state to administer an election in the event of an emergency
will further this purpose and lead to improvements in these
plans.
2. Related Legislation : SB 362 (Padilla) of this session
requires a county elections official to issue a vote by mail
ballot to emergency workers when that individual is
assisting with the recovery efforts during an out-of-state
emergency as called by the Governor. SB 362 is currently
awaiting policy committee referral in the Assembly.
PRIOR ACTION
Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee: 5-0
Assembly Appropriations Committee: 12-0
Assembly Floor: 65-5
POSITIONS
Sponsor: Author
Support: American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees
(AFSCME), AFL-CIO
California Common Cause
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
League of Women Voters
Oppose: None received
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