BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                  AB 813
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   May 1, 2013

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                  Mike Gatto, Chair

                   AB 813 (Melendez) - As Amended:  April 16, 2013 

          Policy Committee:                              ElectionsVote:7-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          Yes    Reimbursable:              Yes

           SUMMARY  

          This bill:

          1)Requires the Secretary of State (SOS) and county elections  
            officials to post on their respective websites and to maintain  
            on these websites for at least 10 years, their certified  
            statement of election results in a downloadable spreadsheet  
            format, as specified, that is compatible with software widely  
            in use at the time of posting.

          2)Stipulates that (1) applies only to those counties with a  
            computer system capable of compliance without undergoing any  
            modification.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          1)Costs to counties are state-reimbursable but should be minor,  
            as only counties with computer systems with existing  
            capability of compliance have to do so.

          2)Costs to the SOS are negligible.

           COMMENTS  

           1)Purpose  . The author argues that, in general, the current  
            posting of election results "does not provide an adequate way  
            for an individual to analyze election data to maintain that  
            the election was done honestly."

           2)Background  . Current law already requires elections officials  
            to provide the SOS with results in an electronic format for  
            elections for state and federal office, and for statewide  








                                                                  AB 813
                                                                  Page  2

            ballot measures.  These results are transmitted electronically  
            to the SOS in the manner requested by the SOS, but no specific  
            format is specified in statute.

          Most county elections officials (57 of 58) have results posted  
            on the Internet for the most recent election held in the  
            county. In most cases, however, elections results are  
            available in HTML or PDF format, and not in a format that can  
            easily be imported into a spreadsheet application. At least  
            seven counties do provide results in a format that appears to  
            comply with the requirements of this bill.

           Analysis Prepared by :    Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081