BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2028| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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. CONTINUED AB 2028 Page 2 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. CONTINUED AB 2028 Page 3 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 CONTINUED AB 2028 Page 4 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 CONTINUED AB 2028 Page 5 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 **** END **** CONTINUED