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 AB 2562 (FONG) Page 2 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 AB 2562 (FONG) Page 3 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. AB 2562 (FONG) Page 4 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. AB 2562 (FONG) Page 5 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. AB 2562 (FONG) Page 6 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 AB 2562 (FONG) Page 7 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) Page 8