BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó






                            SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS
                            AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
                             Senator Alex Padilla, Chair


          BILL NO:   AB 2562              HEARING DATE: 6/17/14
          AUTHOR:    FONG                 ANALYSIS BY:  Frances Tibon  
          Estoista
          AMENDED:   5/23/14
          FISCAL:    NO
          
                                        SUBJECT
           
          Elections

                                      DESCRIPTION  
          
           Existing law  permits a school district or community college  
          district board to fill a vacancy on the board by calling a  
          special election or by making a provisional appointment.  If the  
          board makes a provisional appointment, registered voters may  
          petition for a special election to be held to fill the vacancy.   
          The number of signatures needed on the petition in order to  
          require a special election to be held is based on the number of  
          registered voters in the district.

           This bill  clarifies that the number of signatures needed on a  
          petition to require a special election to fill a vacancy in a  
          trustee area on a school or community college district board is  
          based on the number of registered voters in the trustee area,  
          rather than on the number of registered voters in the entire  
          school or community college district.

           Existing law  further provides that a person appointed to fill a  
          vacancy on a school or community college district board hold  
          office only until the next regularly scheduled election for  
          district governing board members, whereupon an election shall be  
          held to fill the vacancy for the remainder of the unexpired  
          term.  A person elected at an election to fill the school or  
          community college board vacancy shall hold office for the  
          remainder of the term in which the vacancy occurs or will occur.

           This bill  provides that a person appointed to fill a vacancy on  
          a school or community college district board to hold office only  
          until the next regularly scheduled election for district  
          governing board members that is scheduled 130 or more days after  









          the effective date of the vacancy.

           Existing law  requires a voter who is signing an initiative,  
          referendum, recall, nomination, or other election petition or  
          paper, to personally affix his or her signature, printed name,  
          and place of residence on the petition or paper, and further  
          provides that if the residence address on the petition or paper  
          does not match the residence address on the voter's affidavit of  
          registration, the signature on the paper or petition shall  not   
          be counted as valid.

           This bill  specifies that an incomplete or inaccurate apartment  
          or unit number in the residence address of a signer of an  
          election petition or paper shall not invalidate that person's  
          signature.

           Existing law  specifies that when an elections official receives  
          an argument relating to a city measure that will be printed in  
          the ballot pamphlet, the elections official must send a copy of  
          an argument in favor of the proposition to the authors of any  
          argument against the measure and a copy of an argument against  
          the measure to the authors of any argument in favor of the  
          measure immediately upon receiving the arguments.

           This bill  clarifies that when an argument in favor and an  
          argument against a measure have been selected to be printed in  
          the ballot pamphlet, the elections official is required to send  
          a copy of the argument in favor of the measure to the authors of  
          the argument against the measure and a copy of an argument  
          against the measure to the authors of the argument in favor of  
          the measure.

           Existing law  provides that a person who is qualified to register  
          to vote and who has a valid California driver's license or state  
          identification card may submit an affidavit of voter  
          registration electronically on the Secretary of State's (SOS)  
          website, and also provides that an affidavit submitted on the  
          SOS's website is effective upon receipt of the affidavit by the  
          SOS if the affidavit is received on or before the last day to  
          register for an election to be held in the precinct of the  
          person submitting the affidavit.

           This bill  makes various conforming changes to provisions of law  
          governing the voter registration process to reflect the  
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          existence of online voter registration.

           Existing law  requires a voting system that has been tested and  
          approved for use in all elections by the SOS before January 1,  
          2014, be deemed certified or conditionally approved by the SOS  
          and may be used in an election subject to any conditions placed  
          on the use of the voting system by the SOS before January 1,  
          2014, including conditions imposed in the reapproval documents  
          issued by the SOS in 2007 and 2008 following the Top-to-Bottom  
          Review, and its subsequent revisions.   Existing law  further  
          provides that a vendor or county that has submitted a voting  
          system for federal qualification before August 1, 2013, upon  
          obtaining federal qualification before January 1, 2015, may  
          request approval of the voting system from the SOS based on the  
          examination and review requirements in place before January 1,  
          2014.

           This bill  moves the date under which a voting system had to be  
          submitted for federal qualification in order for that system to  
          be subject to the pre-SB 360 (Padilla) testing requirements from  
          August 1, 2013 to September 1, 2013.

           Existing law  requires county elections officials to file a  
          statement containing all of the following information not later  
          than December 31 of each year for each district election in the  
          county held pursuant to specified provisions of law:

          a) The list of offices to be filled;
          b) The name of each candidate, including occupational  
             designation, if any;
          c) The name of each successful candidate;
          d) The number of voters eligible to vote in the district and, if  
             voting is by division, the number of voters eligible to vote  
             in each division;
          e) The number of votes for each candidate; and,
          f) The list of offices for which appointments have been made in  
             lieu of election pursuant to specified provisions of law,  
             together with the names of the persons so appointed.

           This bill  deletes a requirement for county elections officials  
          to submit an annual report to the SOS detailing information  
          about district elections held in the county.

           This bill  corrects various erroneous cross-references in the  
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          Elections Code and makes other technical and conforming changes.

                                      BACKGROUND 
          
            1. School & Community College District Vacancies  :  Under  
             existing law, when a vacancy occurs on the board of a school  
             district or community college district, the board has two  
             options for filling that vacancy.  The board can either call  
             a special election to fill the vacancy, or the board can make  
             a provisional appointment to fill the vacancy.  If the board  
             chooses to make a provisional appointment, voters in the  
             district have the ability to require a special election to be  
             held to fill the vacancy by submitting a specified number of  
             signatures on a petition.  The number of signatures needed is  
             based on the number of registered voters in the district.

           The law concerning the number of signatures needed to force a  
             special election is ambiguous, however, in cases where board  
             members are elected from trustee areas, rather than being  
             elected at-large.  In this situation, it is unclear whether  
             the number of signatures needed to force a special election  
             is based on the number of registered voters in the entire  
             school or community college district, or if it is based on  
             the number of registered voters in the trustee area in  
             question.  Similarly, it is unclear whether the petition may  
             be signed by any voter in the school or community college  
             district, or whether the petition may be signed only by  
             voters who are registered within the trustee area.

           Additionally, if a school or community college district board  
             fills a vacancy by appointment, the person who is appointed  
             holds the seat only until the next regularly scheduled  
             election for district governing board members, whereupon an  
             election is held to fill the vacancy for the remainder of the  
             term.  If a vacancy occurs shortly before a scheduled  
             election for district governing board members, however, it  
             may not be logistically possible to add an additional contest  
             to the ballot for the upcoming election.  This bill would  
             provide that a person who is appointed to fill a vacancy on a  
             school or community college district board would hold office  
             until the next regularly scheduled election for district  
             governing board members that is scheduled at least 130 days  
             after the effective date of the vacancy.

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            2. Apartment Numbers on Petitions  :  When a voter signs an  
             election petition or paper, including nomination papers and  
             initiative, referendum, and recall petitions, the voter is  
             required to provide his or her address.  A voter's signature  
             is not counted as valid if the address on the petition or  
             paper does not match the address on the voter's affidavit of  
             registration.  Voters who live in apartments often omit their  
             apartment number, or transpose numbers in the apartment  
             number, when writing their address on a petition.  Existing  
             law does not explicitly address whether an incorrect or  
             missing apartment number should disqualify a signature on an  
             election paper or petition, but many elections officials  
             count such signatures as valid if the street address for the  
             voter is correct and the voter's signature on the petition or  
             paper matches the signature on the voter's registration  
             record.

            3. Online Voter Registration  :  In 2012, the SOS launched a  
             system that permits California voters to register to vote on  
             the SOS's website, pursuant to legislation previously  
             approved by the Legislature and Governor - SB 381 (Ron  
             Calderon), Ch. 613, Statutes of 2008 and SB 397 (Yee), Ch.  
             561, Statutes of 2011.  Since the launch of the online voter  
             registration system, it has come to light that sections of  
             the Elections Code that describe processes related to voter  
             registration do not reference the existence of the electronic  
             application.  This bill makes various non-substantive changes  
             to provisions of law governing the voter registration process  
             to recognize the existence of online voter registration.

            4. City Ballot Arguments  :  Section 9285 of the Elections Code,  
             dealing with the exchange of ballot arguments on city  
             measures, specifies that elections officials must transmit  
             copies of arguments in favor of a city measure to the  
             opponents of the measure, and in opposition to a city measure  
             to the proponents of the measure, immediately upon receiving  
             those arguments.  However, because multiple arguments may be  
             received by the city elections official, and because  
             arguments can be withdrawn up until the deadline for filing  
             ballot arguments, the official cannot know which arguments  
             will be the official arguments that will be included in  
             election materials until after the deadline has passed for  
             submitting arguments.

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           This proposal clarifies that a city elections official will  
             transmit ballot arguments once the arguments that will be  
             printed in the ballot pamphlet have been selected, rather  
             than once they have been received.

             5.  District Elections Report  :  The Uniform District Election  
              Law (UDEL) was first enacted through the passage of AB 1892  
              (Porter, et al.), Ch. 2019, Statutes of 1965, in an attempt  
              to consolidate and standardize election procedures for  
              various districts in the state.  UDEL initially applied only  
              to water districts, but subsequent legislation made UDEL  
              applicable to various other districts in the state, and made  
              changes to the UDEL procedures to address problems and  
              technical difficulties that arose during the first elections  
              conducted under UDEL.  One such piece of legislation - AB  
              605 (Porter), Ch. 268, Statutes of 1968 - added a  
              requirement for county elections officials to file an annual  
              report with the SOS detailing certain information about  
              elections held in the county under UDEL.  The legislative  
              history available on AB 605 does not indicate the purpose of  
              requiring those reports, though the reports may have been  
              helpful tools after the first few elections conducted using  
              UDEL in determining which districts were conducting  
              elections under that law, and in evaluating whether changes  
              to the law might be warranted.

            In any case, regardless of the original purpose of this  
              reporting requirement, elections officials suggest that the  
              reporting requirement has outlived its usefulness, that the  
              reports take a significant amount of staff time and  
              resources to prepare, and that the completed reports that  
              are submitted to the SOS are filed away by the SOS and are  
              not regularly reviewed or otherwise used for any specific  
              purpose.  This bill repeals that reporting requirement.

            6. Outdated & Erroneous Cross References  :  Last year, the  
             Legislature approved and the Governor signed SB 360  
             (Padilla), Ch. 602, Statutes of 2013, which overhauled and  
             reorganized procedures and criteria for the certification and  
             approval of a voting system.  Among other provisions, SB 360  
             moved the definitions of certain terms from Section 19251 of  
             the Elections Code to Section 19271 of the Elections Code,  
             but that bill failed to update three cross-references in the  
             Elections Code to the section containing those definitions.   
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             This bill updates those outdated cross-references.

           In 1994, the Legislature reorganized the Elections Code through  
             the passage of SB 1547 (Elections and Reapportionment  
             Committee), Ch. 920, Statutes of 1994.  That bill was  
             intended to be non-substantive, rearranging the Elections  
             Code into a more logical and manageable format.  The same  
             year, AB 2219 (Horcher), Ch. 79, Statutes of 1994, eliminated  
             certain recall procedures that applied to recalls against  
             city officers, and instead made city recalls subject to the  
             same provisions of law that applied to recalls against all  
             other public officers.  Pursuant to the terms of the  
             reorganization bill, the language from AB 2219 took effect  
             and prevailed over the changes proposed to the same code  
             sections in the reorganization bill.  However, a  
             cross-reference to the city recall procedures was not updated  
             in AB 2219, and so that cross-reference remained in the law  
             as a part of the reorganization of the Elections Code.  This  
             bill updates that erroneous cross-reference.

            7. Voting System Certification and SB 360  :  SB 360 (Padilla),  
             Ch. 602, Statutes of 2013, significantly modified the  
             procedures for the certification of voting systems that are  
             used in elections held in the state.  Under the provisions of  
             SB 360, any voting system that was submitted for federal  
             qualification before August 1, 2013 could be submitted for  
             state approval under the state's voting system certification  
             requirements that were in place prior to the approval of SB  
             360.  Until the last month of the legislative process, SB 360  
             provided that any voting systems submitted for federal  
             qualification prior to January 1, 2014 would be subject to  
             the old state certification requirements.  The amendment to  
             move the date from January 1, 2014 to August 1, 2013 was made  
             due to concern that the time between the Governor's action on  
             SB 360 and the effective date of the bill could encourage  
             voting system vendors to "rush" voting systems to federal  
             qualification testing in order to avoid being subject to the  
             new state certification procedures.  The August 1 date,  
             however, was also intended to ensure that voting system  
             upgrades that were ready for testing could move forward under  
             the voting system rules in place at the time.  However, one  
             set of voting system equipment that was being prepared for  
             federal testing was not submitted for federal qualification  
             until late August 2013.  A number of counties are interested  
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             in upgrading components of their voting systems with that  
             equipment.



             This proposal moves the date under which a voting system had  
             to be submitted for federal qualification in order for that  
             system to be subject to the pre-SB 360 testing requirements  
             from August 1, 2013 to September 1, 2013.

                                       COMMENTS  
          
            1. According to the Author  :  This elections omnibus bill  
             contains various minor and technical changes to provisions of  
             the Elections Code.  All of the provisions of this bill are  
             either changes requested by the California Association of  
             Clerks and Election Officials (CACEO) or the Secretary of  
             State, or are technical changes identified and suggested by  
             Elections & Redistricting Committee staff.

                                       PRIOR ACTION
           
          Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee:  6-0
          Assembly Floor:                              78-0
                                           
                                      POSITIONS  

          Sponsor: Author

           Support: Secretary of State

           Oppose:  None received











          AB 2562 (FONG)                                                    
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