BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE Senator Lois Wolk, Chair BILL NO: AB 254 HEARING: 5/15/13 AUTHOR: Dahle FISCAL: No VERSION: 2/6/13 TAX LEVY: No CONSULTANT: Austin MODOC COUNTY'S REGISTRAR OF VOTERS Authorizes the Modoc County Board of Supervisors to appoint a registrar of voters separate from the county clerk. Background and Existing Law In most counties, the county clerk is an elected officer who serves both as clerk of the board of supervisors and as registrar of voters. State law authorizes supervisors in 12 counties (El Dorado, Imperial, 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 seven 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. Modoc County is a general law county located in the northeast corner of California, bounded by the state of Oregon to the north and Nevada to the east. As of the 2010 U.S. census, its population was 9,686. The Modoc County Board of Supervisors is the governing body of the county and a number of special districts. In 2011, Imperial County was added to the list of counties authorized to appoint a registrar of voters separate from the county clerk (SB 66, Vargas, 2011). Modoc County seeks the same authority. AB 254 -- 2/6/13 -- Page 2 Proposed Law Senate Bill 254 authorizes the Modoc County Board of Supervisors to appoint a registrar of voters separate from the county clerk. State Revenue Impact No estimate. Comments 1. Purpose of the bill . As a small county with limited resources, the Modoc County Board of Supervisors is looking for ways to better serve their community, be efficient, and save money. One way to reduce costs is to allow the Board of Supervisors to appoint a registrar of voters. Modoc County supervisors want the Legislature to grant them the same statutory authority to appoint a registrar of voters that it has granted to 12 other counties. 2. Home rule . By adopting a county charter, local voters can empower their county supervisors to appoint a registrar of voters to act as the county's elections officer; they don't need to wait for the Legislature to act. Rather than pursue legislation, the Board of Supervisors could put a measure on the ballot. The Committee may wish to consider whether Modoc County voters should get to decide whether the responsibility for Modoc County's elections should be transferred from an elected official to an appointed official. Support and Opposition (5/9/13) Support : Modoc County Board of Supervisors; Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC). Opposition : Unknown. AB 254 -- 2/6/13 -- Page 3