BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS
AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Alex Padilla, Chair
BILL NO: AB 1589 HEARING DATE: 6/17/14
AUTHOR: FRAZIER ANALYSIS BY: Frances Tibon
Estoista
AMENDED: AS INTRODUCED
FISCAL: YES
SUBJECT
Military or overseas voters: electronic ballots
DESCRIPTION
Existing law requires an elections official to request an
electronic mail address from each military or overseas voter who
registers to vote.
Existing law allows a military or overseas voter who provides an
electronic mail address to request that his or her application
for a ballot be considered a standing request for electronic
delivery of a ballot for all elections held through December 31
of the year following the calendar year of the date of the
application, or another shorter period the voter specifies.
Existing law requires an elections official to provide a ballot
to a military or overseas voter who makes a standing request for
each election to which the request is applicable.
This bill deletes provisions of law that require a military or
overseas voter's electronic mail address to expire no later than
December 31 of the year following the calendar year of the
application and instead requires an elections official to
provide for electronic delivery of a ballot to a military or
overseas voter who makes a standing request for all elections
conducted in the jurisdiction in which he or she is eligible to
vote.
BACKGROUND
In 2012, the Legislature passed and the Governor signed AB 1805
(Huffman), Ch. 744, Statutes of 2012, which was a uniform law
that established new voting procedures for military and overseas
voters and was written in a way that it could be applicable in
multiple states that have different election procedures. AB
1805 was an effort to address the lack of uniformity between
states regarding the ability of overseas and military voters to
vote in state and local elections, which complicates efforts to
more fully enfranchise those voters. Applying a uniform law
across states however, can be complicated and have unintended
consequences.
Under existing law, a military or overseas voter that requests
his or her ballot be transmitted via mail or facsimile is not
subject to the same requirements. As a result, if a military or
overseas voter requests that his or her ballot be received via
mail or facsimile, that request is considered to be a standing
request for each election until and unless such time that the
voter changes their preference or does not vote in a certain
number of regularly scheduled statewide elections, as specified.
Prior to the passage of AB 1805 state law did not require an
expiration date to apply to requests to receive a VBM ballot via
electronic transmission.
COMMENTS
1. According to the Author : Members of the military and other
U.S. citizens living overseas are allowed to receive their
voter information and blank, unvoted ballots by mail, fax, or
email. For voters who request their ballot by mail or by
fax, that request is considered to be a standing request for
each election until such time that the voter changes their
preference or does not vote in a certain number of regularly
scheduled statewide elections.
However, voters who request their ballot be emailed to them are
treated differently because under state law, a voter's
request to receive a ballot by email is only good for two
years. Only military and overseas voters who request their
ballot by email are subject to this "expiration" of their
ballot delivery address.
For some members of the U.S. military serving overseas, an
email address may be their most effective method of contact
with an elections official. If state law continues to
require that the email addresses of overseas soldiers must be
renewed every two years, it is likely that some of the people
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who put their lives on the line for democracy will be
disenfranchised when their email address expires. No other
address provided for ballot delivery automatically expires
unless that expiration is specifically requested by the
voter.
AB 1589 removes the "email expiration" language from state law,
allowing a request for ballot delivery to stand for as long
as the military or overseas voter is eligible for email
delivery of their ballot. It simply makes no sense to
disenfranchise the brave men and women serving our country
overseas with a rule that makes it more difficult for them to
receive and cast their ballots in a timely fashion.
PRIOR ACTION
Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee: 7-0
Assembly Appropriations Committee: 17-0
Assembly Floor: 72-0
POSITIONS
Sponsor: Secretary of State
Support: None received
Oppose: None received
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