BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 882
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Date of Hearing: April 17, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 882 (Gordon) - As Introduced: February 23, 2013
Policy Committee: ElectionsVote:7-0
(Consent)
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill corrects an inconsistency in current election law
regarding the process governing the verification of signatures
on a recall petition. Specifically, this bill provides that if
500 or more signatures are submitted to an elections official on
a petition for the recall of a state officer, the elections
official may verify, using a random sampling technique, either
3% of the signatures submitted or 500 signatures, whichever is
greater, instead of verifying the lesser of the two amounts.
FISCAL EFFECT
Negligible fiscal impact, as the bill is consistent with
historical practice and advice from the Secretary of State's
(SOS's) Office.
COMMENTS
1)Background and Purpose . Existing law permits elections
officials to use a random sampling technique when verifying
the signatures on petitions in certain situations where
officials are presented with petitions with large numbers of
signatures. Under this technique, officials select a
specified number of signatures from the petition at random,
check the validity of those signatures, and based on that
check of a small number of signatures, project the total
number of valid signatures on the petition. Existing law
generally provides that the results of a random sample of
signatures can only be substituted for a full verification of
all signatures on the petition when the projected number of
signatures is either significantly above or significantly
AB 882
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below the number of signatures needed. By avoiding the need to
examine every signature on every petition filed with an
elections official, the random sampling technique can
significantly reduce the time and expense associated with
verifying signatures on petitions.
In almost every case where random sampling is allowed,
existing law requires the elections official to verify either
a certain number of signatures, or a certain percentage of the
total number of signatures submitted, whichever is larger. In
the case of petitions for the recall of a state officer,
however, for any petition that has 500 signatures or more,
existing law provides that the elections official must examine
either 500 signatures or 3% of the signatures on the section
of the petition, whichever is less. AB 882, sponsored by the
SOS, corrects this apparent technical error by providing that
elections officials must examine the greater of 500 signatures
or 3% of the signatures on the section of such petitions.
2)Prior Legislation . This bill is identical to AB 2080 (Gordon)
of 2012, which was approved 74-0 by the Assembly, but was
amended in the Senate to address a different issue.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081