BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS
AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Alex Padilla, Chair
BILL NO: AB 2028 HEARING DATE: 6/17/14
AUTHOR: MULLIN ANALYSIS BY: Darren Chesin
AMENDED: 4/28/14
FISCAL: NO
SUBJECT
All-mailed ballot elections: San Mateo County
DESCRIPTION
Existing law permits elections held on no more than three
different dates in Yolo County to be conducted wholly by mail,
as part of a pilot project lasting through January 1, 2018,
subject to the following conditions:
a.The governing body of the city, county, or district, by
resolution, authorizes the all-mailed ballot election and
notifies the Secretary of State (SOS) of its intent to conduct
an all-mailed ballot election at least 88 days prior to the
date of the election;
b.The election does not occur on the same date as a statewide
primary or general election or any other election conducted in
an overlapping jurisdiction that is not consolidated and
conducted as an all-mailed ballot election, and is not a
special election to fill a vacancy in a state office, the
Legislature, or Congress;
c.At least one ballot drop-off location is provided in each city
within the jurisdiction and is open during business hours to
receive voted ballots beginning 28 days before the date of the
election and until 8 p.m. on the day of the election;
d.At least one polling place is provided per city where voters
can request a ballot between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. on the day of
the election if they need a replacement ballot;
e.The elections official delivers to each voter all supplies
necessary for the use and return of the mail ballot, including
an envelope for the return of the voted mail ballot with
postage prepaid;
f.The elections official posts on the Web site of the county
elections office and delivers to each voter, with either the
sample ballot or with the voter's ballot, a list of the ballot
dropoff locations and polling places provided; and,
g.The polling places provided are at accessible locations and
are equipped with voting units or systems that are accessible
to individuals with disabilities.
Existing law requires, if Yolo County conducts an all-mailed
ballot election pursuant to the pilot project described above,
that the county report to the Legislature and to the SOS
regarding the success of the election. The report must include,
but not be limited to, statistics on the cost to conduct the
election; the turnout of different populations, including, but
not limited to, the population categories of race, ethnicity,
age, gender, disability, permanent vote by mail (VBM) status,
and political party affiliation, to the extent possible; the
number of ballots that were not counted and the reasons why they
were rejected; voter fraud; and, any other problems that became
known to the county during the election or canvass. The report
must, whenever possible, compare the success of the all-mailed
ballot election to similar elections not conducted wholly by
mail in the same jurisdiction. The report must be submitted to
the Legislature within six months after the date of an
all-mailed ballot election or prior to the date of any other
all-mailed ballot election conducted pursuant to the pilot
project, whichever is sooner.
Existing law permits an election to be conducted wholly by mail
if the governing body authorizes the use of mailed ballots for
the election, the election occurs on an established mailed
ballot election date, and the election is one of the following:
a.An election in which no more than 1,000 registered voters are
eligible to participate;
b.An election in a city, county, or district with 5,000 or fewer
registered voters that is restricted to the imposition of
special taxes, expenditure limitation overrides, or both;
c.An election on the issuance of a general obligation water
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bond;
d.An election in one of four specifically enumerated water
districts; or,
e.An election or assessment ballot proceeding required or
authorized by the state constitution under Proposition 218.
Existing law authorizes a city with a population of 100,000 or
less or a school district to conduct any special election held
to fill a vacancy as an all-mailed ballot election and
authorizes a district to conduct any election as an all-mailed
ballot election on any date other than an established election
date.
This bill permits San Mateo County to join the pilot program
currently underway in Yolo County, under which Yolo County is
permitted to conduct all-mailed ballot elections on up to three
different dates through January 1, 2018, subject to certain
conditions and reporting requirements.
This bill modifies one of the conditions of the pilot program
such that the number of ballot drop-off locations required to be
provided at an all-mailed ballot election is either one location
per city or one location per 100,000 residents, whichever
results in more drop-off locations, instead of one location per
city.
BACKGROUND
Vote By Mail and Permanent Vote By Mail Voting . Under state
law, any voter can request a VBM ballot for any election, and
any voter can become a permanent VBM voter. Permanent VBM
voters automatically receive a ballot in the mail for every
election, without the need to re-apply for a VBM ballot. As
such, any voter who prefers to vote by mail has the ability to
do so under existing law.
Among the arguments that supporters of all-mailed ballot
elections frequently make in support of such elections is that
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all-mailed ballot elections are more convenient for voters.
However, it is not clear whether this is the case. Any voter
who finds it more convenient to vote by mail has the option to
do so under existing law, and voters who want to vote by mail at
every election can sign up for permanent VBM status. Some
voters, due to physical disability or language issues, may
prefer to vote at the polls in order to take advantage of access
or help provided by electronic voting machines or bilingual poll
workers.
Yolo County Pilot Project . In 2011, the Legislature approved
and the Governor signed AB 413 (Yamada), Ch. 187, Statutes of
2011, which created a pilot program allowing Yolo County to
conduct local elections on not more than three dates as
all-mailed ballot elections. AB 413 was intended to serve as a
pilot project to evaluate the desirability of further expanding
the circumstances under which elections are permitted to be
conducted as all-mailed ballot elections. Yolo County conducted
all-mailed ballot elections last March in the City of Davis and
the Washington Unified School District as permitted by AB 413,
and submitted its report on those elections last December. The
pilot project in Yolo County was authorized following a prior
pilot project in Monterey County that failed to provide useful
information about the impacts of all-mailed ballot elections
because the report filed by Monterey County as part of the pilot
project lacked much of the information that was necessary to
evaluate the impacts of the pilot project.
The report prepared in connection with the first two elections
conducted in Yolo County under the pilot project found that
turnout at the all-mailed ballot elections conducted as part of
the pilot project was not significantly different than similar
polling place elections held in the two jurisdictions in prior
years. The study also found that turnout rates broken down by
age, ethnic background, party preference, and permanent VBM
status was consistent and similar between the polling place and
the all-mailed ballot elections. The study found that data
provided on the cost to conduct all-mailed ballot elections was
inconclusive in determining whether there are significant
savings to moving to all-mailed ballot elections. However, the
study also cautioned that Davis-one of the jurisdictions in
which the pilot was conducted-"is a relatively affluent,
homogenous community with a higher level of educational
achievement than most other areas of the state" and so the
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results "are not necessarily applicable to other, dissimilar
communities." The report also noted that the effects of
all-mailed ballot elections on turnout would not necessarily be
similar in general elections.
Yolo County is permitted to conduct local elections as
all-mailed ballot elections on two additional dates before the
conclusion of the pilot project.
United States Postal Service Facility Closures and Mail Delays .
In 2012, this committee and the Assembly Elections and
Redistricting Committee held a joint oversight hearing to
discuss United States Postal Service (USPS) facility closures
and the impact on voters and upcoming elections. During the
hearing, state and county elections officials testified about
the impact that recent post office and processing facility
closures had on their jurisdictions and on local elections, as
well as the anticipated challenges with more closures expected.
According to testimony from elections officials, one of the most
significant impacts those closures had on the election process
is that there had been significant delays in mail delivery in
some circumstances. Elections officials from counties that were
previously served by closed facilities indicated that some first
class mail took five to seven days to arrive after closures of
USPS facilities, compared to the usual delivery time of one to
three days. Since that hearing, the USPS has announced further
plans for changes in mail delivery procedures that also have the
potential to delay mail delivery. Finally, the USPS and
Congress have considered proposals to end Saturday mail delivery
as a way to cut costs.
COMMENTS
1.According to the Author: In recent years, the percentage of
California voters who cast mail-in ballots has increased
dramatically, and it is especially great in special elections.
Last year more than 80% of voters cast their ballots by mail
in some cases. At the same time, these special elections see
abysmal turnout levels, at times dipping below 10% of eligible
voters.
Research from the University of California San Diego indicates
that when special elections are conducted by mail, turnout
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levels increase by close to eight percentage points in
California. An increase of this magnitude could mean nearly
doubling turnout rates in some jurisdictions. In addition,
the policy has the potential to save taxpayer dollars because
mail-ballot elections typically cost significantly less than
traditional polling place elections.
California embarked on an all-mail special election pilot
project in the early 1990s. That particular project was
conducted in Stanislaus County, and the results indicated
increase in turnout from 7% below the statewide average to 7%
above. In addition, the county spent half as much money
administering the election as it did during traditional
polling place elections. However, the pilot was not extended,
nor was the policy adopted statewide.
Nearly two decades later, in 2011, the Legislature authorized
another pilot project in a rural county, again with the
intention of examining the turnout effects of vote-by-mail
elections. The project only applies to one rural county, and
the number of mail-in elections dates is capped at three; it
is set to expire in 2018. Last year, elections were conducted
on one out of the three total permissible election dates, and
a subsequent election report demonstrated no significant
increase or decrease in turnout, including when turnout levels
were broken down by ethnicity. The report did, however,
indicate a total cost-savings of about 43%. In the end, it
called for more data on all-mail elections in California.
Because there are only two permissible all-mail special election
dates left under the pilot, the Legislature should expand the
program to gather more data. In doing so, an urban county
should be included to contrast the rural county that is
already part of the program. San Mateo County is a great
candidate: it is an urban county and, as a charter county, it
currently conducts some special elections by mail, so an
all-mail infrastructure is already in place. By adding San
Mateo County to the pilot, AB 2028 proposes a modest program
expansion.
2.Related and Previous Legislation : AB 1873 (Mullin), which is
also scheduled to be heard in this committee, allows special
elections to fill vacancies in the Legislature and Congress to
be conducted entirely by mailed ballot, and allows any city or
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county special election to be conducted entirely by mailed
ballot, among other provisions.
SB 304 (Kehoe) of 2011 would have authorized elections in San
Diego County to be conducted wholly by mail until January 1,
2016, if specified conditions were satisfied. SB 304 was
never heard in committee.
SB 1102 (Liu) of 2010 would have permitted a special primary or
run-off election to fill a legislative or congressional
vacancy to be conducted wholly by mail provided that the board
of supervisors of each county within the affected jurisdiction
authorized the all-mail ballot election. SB 1102 was never
brought up for vote on the Senate Floor.
AB 1681 (Yamada) of 2010 was similar to AB 413. AB 1681 was
vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger, who expressed concern that,
"with limited options to vote in-person citizens-especially
poor, elderly, and disabled voters-would not have sufficient
opportunity to vote." AB 1228 (Yamada) of 2009 was similar to
AB 1681, except that AB 1228 would have allowed both Yolo and
Santa Clara Counties to participate in the all-mail ballot
pilot project. AB 1228 was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger
for the same reasons stated in his veto message of AB 1681
above.
PRIOR ACTION
Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee: 4-1
Assembly Floor: 51-23
POSITIONS
Sponsor: Author
Support: California State Association of Counties
Urban Counties Caucus
Oppose: None received
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