BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2351
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 6, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Paul Fong, Chair
AB 2351 (Gordon) - As Introduced: February 21, 2014
SUBJECT : Political party qualification.
SUMMARY : Revises conditions under which a political party is
considered qualified to participate in a primary or presidential
general election. Specifically, this bill :
1)Provides that a political party is qualified to participate in
a primary or presidential general election if, at the last
preceding gubernatorial primary election, the sum of the votes
cast for all of the candidates for an office voted on
throughout the state who disclosed a preference for that party
on the ballot was at least two percent of the entire vote of
the state, instead of the last preceding gubernatorial general
election in which there was polled for any one of its
candidates for any office voted on through the state, at least
two percent of the entire vote of the state.
2)Permits a party to inform the Secretary of State (SOS) that it
declines to have the votes cast for any candidate who has
disclosed that party as his or her party preference on the
ballot counted toward the two percent qualification threshold.
Requires a party, if a party wishes to have votes for any
candidate not counted in support of its qualification, to
notify the SOS in writing of that candidate's name by the
seventh day prior to the gubernatorial primary election.
3)Provides that a political party is qualified to participate in
a primary election if, on or before the 135th day before a
primary election, it appears to the SOS, as a result of
examining and totaling the statement of voters and their
declared political preferences transmitted to the SOS by
county elections officials, that voters equal in number to at
least 0.33 percent of the total number of voters registered on
the 154th day before the primary election have declared their
preference for that party, instead of at least one percent of
the entire vote of the state at the last preceding
gubernatorial election have declared their intention to
affiliate with that party.
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4)Provides that a political party is qualified to participate in
a presidential general election if, on or before the 102nd day
before a presidential general election, it appears to the SOS,
as a result of examining and totaling the statement of voters
and their declared political preferences transmitted to the
SOS by county elections officials, that voters equal in number
to at least 0.33 percent of the total number of voters
registered on the 123rd day before the presidential general
election have declared their preference for that party,
instead of at least one percent of the entire vote of the
state at the last preceding gubernatorial election have
declared their intention to affiliate with that party.
5)Makes other corresponding changes.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides that a political party is qualified to participate in
a primary election under any of the following conditions:
a) If, at the last preceding gubernatorial election, there
was polled for any one of its candidates for any office
voted on through the state, at least two percent of the
entire vote of the state;
b) If, on or before the 135th day before any primary
election, it appears to the SOS, as a result of examining
and totaling the statement of voters and their political
affiliations transmitted to the SOS by county elections
officials, that voters equal in number to at least one
percent of the entire vote of the state at the last
preceding gubernatorial election have declared their
intention to affiliate with that party; or,
c) If, on or before the 135th day before any primary
election, there is filed with the SOS a petition signed by
voters equal in number to 10 percent of the entire vote of
the state at the last preceding gubernatorial election,
declaring that they represent a proposed party, the name of
which shall be stated in the petition, which proposed party
those voters desire to have participate in that primary
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election.
2)Provides that a political party is qualified to participate in
a presidential general election under any of the following
conditions:
a) The party is qualified to participate and participated
in the presidential primary election preceding the
presidential general election pursuant to existing law;
b) If, at the last preceding gubernatorial election, there
was polled for any one of its candidates for any office
voted on through the state, at least two percent of the
entire vote of the state;
c) If, on or before the 135th day before any primary
election, it appears to the SOS, as a result of examining
and totaling the statement of voters and their political
affiliations transmitted to the SOS by county elections
officials, that voters equal in number to at least one
percent of the entire vote of the state at the last
preceding gubernatorial election have declared their
intention to affiliate with that party; or,
d) If, on or before the 135th day before any primary
election, there is filed with the SOS a petition signed by
voters equal in number to 10 percent of the entire vote of
the state at the last preceding gubernatorial election,
declaring that they represent a proposed party, the name of
which shall be stated in the petition, which proposed party
those voters desire to have participate in that primary
election.
3)Requires each political party to have its qualifications
reviewed by the SOS upon the occurrence of the gubernatorial
election. Provides that a party that does not meet the
standards for qualification, as described above, shall be
prohibited from participating in any primary or presidential
general election. Requires a party that loses qualification,
but seeks to regain that qualification, to file a notice with
the SOS indicating that it intends to regain qualification.
FISCAL EFFECT : Keyed non-fiscal by Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS :
AB 2351
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1)Purpose of the Bill : According to the author:
Proposition 14, passed by the voters in June of 2010, will
eliminate a major way the smaller political parties remain
qualified and therefore maintain ballot status. In
response, AB 2351 would make two distinct changes to the
party qualification statutes to remedy this situation and
continue to provide smaller parties with a means to retain
their qualified party status.
2)How to Qualify as a Political Party : Current law permits a
political body to use one of two methods to qualify as a
political party. The first method is the voter registration
method. In order to qualify a new political party by the
voter registration method, current law requires that a number
of voters equal to one percent of the votes cast at the last
gubernatorial election complete an affidavit of registration,
on which they have disclosed a preference for the political
body intending to qualify as a political party, by writing in
the name of the political body. A political body which sought
to qualify via the voter registration method for the June 2014
primary election must have had 103,004 voters registered as
disclosing a preference for that political body.
The second method used to qualify as a new political party is
by petition. In order to qualify as a new political party by
petition, current law requires the SOS, no later than 135 days
prior to the primary election, to determine if a political
body intending to qualify has collected petition signatures of
registered voters that equal in number to 10 percent of the
votes cast at the last gubernatorial election. In order for a
political party to qualify for the June 2014 primary election,
it must have collected 1,030,040 valid petition signatures of
registered voters.
3)Maintaining Qualified Political Party Status : Once a
political party has qualified, current law permits the party
to maintain its qualified status by retaining registrants
representing at least 1/15 of one percent of the total state
registrations and either having one of its statewide
candidates receive at least two percent of the entire vote of
the state for that office at the preceding gubernatorial
election or retaining statewide registrations equaling at
least one percent of the total votes cast at the preceding
AB 2351
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gubernatorial election.
This bill makes changes to the methods a political party uses
to maintain its qualified political party status. First, this
bill makes changes to the party qualification test that allows
party qualification as a result of votes for the party's
candidate for a statewide office. Specifically, this bill
moves the vote threshold test from the preceding gubernatorial
general election to the preceding gubernatorial primary
election. Additionally, this bill allows the two percent
threshold to be calculated based on the sum of the votes cast
for all the party's candidates for a single statewide office
instead of basing the two percent threshold on having one of
its statewide candidates receive at least two percent of the
entire vote of the state for that office. According to the
author, due to the "top two" primary election system, smaller
party candidates are no longer guaranteed a spot on the
general election ballot for the statewide partisan offices.
As a result, the smaller parties will be unable to use this
method to maintain their qualified political party status.
The changes in this bill will ensure smaller parties can
continue to use this method to maintain their qualified
status.
Second, this bill makes changes to the test that allows party
qualification as a result of registration numbers relative to
votes cast for Governor in the November general election.
Specifically, this bill changes the registration threshold for
party qualification from one percent of all votes cast in the
gubernatorial general election to 0.33 percent of all
registered voters that have declared their preference for that
party, regardless of the gubernatorial voter turnout.
Proponents of this bill argue that basing the registration
threshold on voter turnout is challenging because voter
turnout is unpredictable and subject to large fluctuations and
as a result it is difficult for a party to know how many
voters a party needs to maintain their qualification status.
According to the author, because smaller parties will likely
be unable to utilize the statewide office test to maintain
their qualification status they will need to either meet the
registration test option or file a petition with the SOS
signed by an even larger number of voters. The author argues
that this bill will provide greater predictability as to how
many voters a party would need to maintain by basing it off of
registration rather than unpredictable elections turnout.
AB 2351
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Finally, the author contends that all of these changes in this
bill will provide minor parties with a more reasonable
opportunity to maintain their qualified party status.
4)"Top Two" Primary : In February 2009, the Legislature approved
SCA 4 (Maldonado), Res. Chapter 2, Statutes of 2009, which was
enacted by the voters as Proposition 14 on the June 2010
statewide primary election ballot. Proposition 14 implemented
a top two primary election system in California for most
elective state and federal offices. At primary elections,
voters are able to vote for any candidate, regardless of
party, and the two candidates who receive the most votes,
regardless of party, advance to the general election.
The implementation of the top two primary system has had a
significant impact on third parties. Only the top two
candidates for most elective state and federal offices advance
to the general election. Under this new process, it is
challenging for a third party candidate for statewide office
to advance to the general election ballot. Consequently, it
has become impractical for third parties to maintain their
status as qualified political parties based on the number of
votes cast for their candidates for statewide office at the
general election since their candidates typically will not
appear on the general election ballot. In addition, as that
method to maintain party qualification status goes away,
parties will likely have to meet the registration test in
order to maintain their qualification status.
According to the author's office, in an effort to address this
problem this bill allows a political party to maintain its
status if at the last preceding gubernatorial primary
election, instead of the last preceding gubernatorial general
election, the sum of the votes cast for all of the party's
candidates for a statewide office total at least two percent
of the votes for that office. In other words, this bill moves
the timing of when the two percent test occurs, from the
preceding gubernatorial general election to the preceding
gubernatorial primary election as well as allowing the two
percent threshold to be calculated based on the votes for all
of the party's candidates in a particular race, not just one
candidate.
Additionally, this bill changes the registration threshold for
party qualification from one percent of all votes cast in the
AB 2351
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gubernatorial general election to 0.33 percent of all
registered voters that have declared their preference for that
party, regardless of the gubernatorial voter turnout. The
combination of these changes will help alleviate the
challenges smaller parties face when trying to maintain their
political party qualification status.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Alliance for Retired Americans
Californians for Electoral Reform
Coalition for Free and Open Elections
Peace & Freedom Party of California
Secretary of State Debra Bowen
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Nichole Becker / E. & R. / (916)
319-2094