BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                            



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                                    THIRD READING


          Bill No:  AB 2028
          Author:   Mullin (D), et al.
          Amended:  4/28/14 in Assembly
          Vote:     21

           
           SENATE ELECTIONS & CONSTITUTIONAL AMEND. COMM.  :  4-0, 6/17/14
          AYES:  Padilla, Hancock, Jackson, Pavley
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Anderson

           ASSEMBLY FLOOR  :  51-23, 5/15/14 - See last page for vote


           SUBJECT  :    All-mailed ballot elections:  San Mateo County

           SOURCE  :     Author


           DIGEST  :    This bill authorizes San Mateo County to participate  
          in an ongoing pilot project that allows certain elections to be  
          conducted entirely by mailed ballot.

           ANALYSIS  :    Existing law:

          1.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  
            specified conditions.

          2.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 Secretary of  
            State regarding the success of the election.  
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          3.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 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.

          1.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:

          1.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.

          2.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.


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           Background
          
          Vote By Mail and Permanent Vote By Mail Voting  .  Under state  
          law, any voter can request a vote by mail (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.

          Among the arguments that supporters of all-mailed ballot  
          elections frequently make in support of such elections is that  
          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, 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  .  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  

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          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  
          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.

           FISCAL EFFECT  :    Appropriation:  No   Fiscal Com.:  No   Local:  
           No

           SUPPORT  :   (Verified  6/19/14)

          California Association of Code Enforcement Officers
          California State Association of Counties
          County of San Mateo
          Urban Counties Caucus

           ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT  :    The County of San Mateo writes,  
          "Special elections see abysmal turnout levels, with fewer than  
          10 percent of voters turning out in some instances.  However,  
          studies have found that turnout increases in special elections  
          when every voter receives a ballot in the mail, and a  
          California-specific study found a turnout boost of nearly eight  
          percentage points under the primarily vote-by-mail system.  The  
          expansion of primarily vote-by-mail elections promises to  
          further increase voter turnout in some areas.  In addition, more  
          than 50 percent of the state's voters are not voting by mail in  
          statewide general elections, and the numbers of even higher in  
          special elections reaching 80 percent in some jurisdictions. 

          "The expansion of the Yolo County pilot to include San Mateo  

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          County would also provide for the inclusion of an urban county  
          in the statewide analysis of the impact that the all-mailed  
          ballot election had on the turnout of voters by permanent  
          vote-by-mail status providing the Legislature with a broader  
          picture of its impact.  San Mateo County is the ideal County to  
          include in the pilot as our permanent vote-by mail numbers  
          continue to increase year-over-year. 

          "Given the growing cost of conducting special elections and the  
          rise of permanent vote-by-mail voters, it is important that  
          counties be provided with an opportunity to try new and more  
          efficient ways of conducting elections."

           ASSEMBLY FLOOR  :  51-23, 5/15/14
          AYES: Alejo, Ammiano, Bloom, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta,  
            Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau,  
            Chesbro, Cooley, Dababneh, Daly, Dickinson, Eggman, Fox,  
            Frazier, Garcia, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Hall, Holden,  
            Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Lowenthal, Medina, Mullin, Muratsuchi,  
            Nazarian, Olsen, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel Pérez, Quirk,  
            Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Skinner, Stone,  
            Ting, Weber, Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, Atkins
          NOES: Achadjian, Allen, Bigelow, Chávez, Conway, Dahle,  
            Donnelly, Beth Gaines, Gatto, Grove, Hagman, Harkey, Roger  
            Hernández, Jones, Linder, Logue, Maienschein, Melendez,  
            Nestande, Patterson, Wagner, Waldron, Wilk
          NO VOTE RECORDED: Fong, Gorell, Mansoor, John A. Pérez, Salas,  
            Vacancy


          RM:nl  6/20/14   Senate Floor Analyses 

                           SUPPORT/OPPOSITION:  SEE ABOVE

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