BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS
AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Alex Padilla, Chair
BILL NO: AB 2530 HEARING DATE: 6/24/14
AUTHOR: RODRIGUEZ ANALYSIS BY: Frances Tibon
Estoista
AMENDED: 5/23/14
FISCAL: YES
SUBJECT
Ballot processing
DESCRIPTION
Existing law permits a county elections official, upon receipt
of a vote by mail (VBM) ballot, or provisional ballot to compare
the signature on the identification envelope with one of the
following to determine whether the signatures compare:
a) The signature appearing on the voter's affidavit of
registration or any previous affidavit of registration of the
voter; or,
b) The signature appearing on a form issued by an elections
official that contains the voter's signature, that is part of
the voter's registration record, and that the elections
official has determined compares with the signature on the
voter's affidavit of registration or any previous affidavit
of registration of the voter, as specified.
Existing law permits an elections official to make the
determination of whether a signature on a VBM ballot or
provisional ballot, compares with the signatures on file for
that voter by reviewing a series of signatures appearing on
official forms in the voter's registration record that have been
determined to compare, that demonstrate the progression of the
voter's signature, and that make evident that the signature on
the identification envelope is that of the voter.
Existing law provides that if the ballot is rejected because the
signatures do not compare, the envelope shall not be opened and
the ballot shall not be counted, and further requires the cause
of the rejection to be written on the face of the identification
envelope.
This bill authorizes an elections official to use signature
verification technology when comparing the signatures on a VBM
ballot identification envelope. If signature verification
technology determines the signatures do not compare, the
elections official shall not reject the ballot unless he or she
visually examines the signatures and verifies that the
signatures do not compare.
This bill makes other technical and conforming changes.
BACKGROUND
Signature Verification Process : Existing law requires a county
elections official, upon receiving a VBM ballot, mail ballot
precinct ballot, or provisional ballot, to compare the signature
on the identification envelope with the signature appearing in
the voter's registration record, as specified. If the
signatures compare, existing law requires the county elections
official to deposit the ballot, still in the identification
envelope, in a ballot container in his or her office. Due to an
increase in VBM and provisional ballots, and to make the
verification process more efficient, many county elections
officials use signature verification technology to compare and
verify signatures on ballot identification envelopes.
Historically, the main reasons why a ballot is rejected for a
signature mismatch is because the signature is unreadable,
missing or has changed and is out of date. As noted in the
author's statement below, computer signature verification
technology is not infallible and unfortunately there are
circumstances that may lead the verification software to
incorrectly determine that a signature on an identification
envelope does not compare to the signature on the voter's
registration record. For example, the location of the voter's
signature on the envelope, a problem with the digital image of
the signature, or an outdated signature, all may lead
verification software to incorrectly determine that the
signatures do not match. Consequently, as mentioned above, it
is the existing practice of county elections officials to
visually compare signatures that signature verification
technology finds do not compare before rejecting a voted ballot.
However, this practice is not required by law.
AB 2530 (RODRIGUEZ)
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COMMENTS
1. According to the Author : California voters are increasingly
choosing to vote by mail. During the November 2012 statewide
election, for the first time ever in a general election, a
majority of California voters chose to cast vote-by-mail
ballots. Current law requires a voter's signature on a
provisional or mail ballot envelope to compare with a
signature found in the voter's registration record. To
accommodate provisional ballots and the growing number of
vote-by-mail ballots, many elections officials use signature
comparison software to verify signatures. When software
cannot verify that a signature compares, the existing
practice is that the election official visually examines the
signatures to determine if the ballot will be counted.
However, this practice is not required by law.
Signatures often vary over time and human eyes may identify a
natural progression among the signatures in the voter's
record. A computer may fail to recognize that progression.
It is also possible that the county may have a poor quality
signature image - either on file or scanned from the ballot
envelope - that requires human eyes rather than comparison by
software.
AB 2530 (RODRIGUEZ)
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AB 2530 codifies existing best practices in the use of
signature verification technology that both allow California
elections officials to use automated systems and also ensure
no voter's ballot is rejected without a human review of the
signatures.
2. Related Legislation : AB 1135 (Mullin), Ch. 271, Statutes of
2013 expanded the list of documents a county elections
official may use to compare to the signature on a VBM
identification envelope.
PRIOR ACTION
Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee: 5-1
Assembly Appropriations Committee: 12-5
Assembly Floor: 53-25
POSITIONS
Sponsor: Secretary of State
Support: California State Council of Service Employees
International Union (SEIU)
Oppose: None received
AB 2530 (RODRIGUEZ)
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