BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 214|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 214
Author: Skinner (D), et al.
Amended: 5/28/13 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE ELECTIONS & CONSTITUTIONAL AMEND. COMM. : 3-1, 6/4/13
AYES: Hancock, Yee, Torres
NOES: Anderson
NO VOTE RECORDED: Padilla
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 7-0, 8/30/13
AYES: De Le�n, Walters, Gaines, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 65-5, 4/15/13 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Voting: state of emergency
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires the Secretary of State (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.
ANALYSIS : Existing law:
1.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.
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2.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.
3.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.
4.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/her home precinct, to issue an emergency
worker a provisional ballot.
5.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:
1.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.
2.Requires the SOS to publish the procedures and guidelines on
his/her Internet Web site.
3.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.
4.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
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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
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.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, one-time costs
of $124,403 to the Secretary of State (General Fund).
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/30/13)
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American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees,
AFL-CIO
California Common Cause
Service Employees International Union
League of Women Voters
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office, the
right 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.
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.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 65-5, 4/15/13
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Bloom,
Blumenfield, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown,
Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chesbro, Cooley, Dahle,
Daly, Dickinson, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier, Beth Gaines,
Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gordon, Gorell, Gray, Hagman, Hall,
Roger Hern�ndez, Holden, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Maienschein,
Medina, Melendez, Mitchell, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian,
Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel P�rez, Quirk,
Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Torres,
Wagner, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, John A.
P�rez
NOES: Ch�vez, Donnelly, Logue, Mansoor, Waldron
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NO VOTE RECORDED: Bigelow, Conway, Grove, Harkey, Jones,
Linder, Lowenthal, Morrell, Patterson, Vacancy
RM:nl 8/30/13 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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