BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
SB 29 (Correa) - Vote by mail ballots.
Amended: March 6, 2013 Policy Vote: E&CA 3-1
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: April 8, 2013
Consultant: Maureen Ortiz
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SB 29 allows vote-by-mail ballots to be counted if
they are postmarked on or before election day, and received by
the county elections office no later than three days after the
election. The bill also extends the period of time counties
have to finish canvassing the election results by three
additional days.
Fiscal Impact:
Unknown, potentially significant reimbursable mandate
costs. (General)
County election officials will likely incur additional costs to
manually check the postmark on all ballots that arrive after the
close of the polls through the following third day. An
unofficial count indicates that more than 20,000 ballots arrived
too late to be counted at the last statewide general election.
However, exact costs will be dependent on the change in voter
behavior - that is, how many vote by mail voters who currently
mail their ballots a week or more before the election, will then
wait until closer to election day once they learn about the
three day grace period. This could result in tens of thousands
of ballots arriving at the county offices after election day and
therefore necessitating a manual inspection of the
postmark,resulting in substantial overtime costs for county
election officials. Staff estimates that reimbursable state
costs could be approximately $150,000 per election.
Background: Under existing law, all ballots must be received by
the elections official from whom they were obtained or by the
precinct board no later than the close of polls on election day.
Counties have 28 days after an election to canvass the vote and
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then certify the election results.
According to the National Association of Secretaries of State,
each state has its own deadline for the return of mail-in
absentee ballots. Dates may vary according to whether the
individual submitting the absentee ballot is a civilian living
in the United States, or a military or overseas voter covered
under the Uniformed and Overseas Civilian Absentee Voting Act
(UOCAVA). For civilians residing within the U.S., the following
information applies:
In three states, absentee ballots must be returned prior to
Election Day.
In 36 states, absentee ballots must be returned by Election
Day.
In 11 states and the District of Columbia, additional time
for the arrival of absentee ballots is provided after
Election Day, as long as the absentee ballot is postmarked by
Election Day.
For active duty military and overseas citizens covered under
UOCAVA, the following requirements apply:
In 30 states, absentee ballots of individuals covered under
UOCAVA must be returned by Election Day.
Twenty states and the District of Columbia provide
additional time after Election Day for the absentee ballots
of UOCAVA voters to arrive. Most of these states require the
absentee ballot to be postmarked by a certain date (usually
by Election Day).
"Special absentee voter" is a voter who meets any of the
following:
- A member of the Armed Forces of the United States or any
auxiliary branch.
- A citizen of the U. S. temporarily living outside of the
territorial limits of the U. S. or the District of Columbia.
- Service on a merchant vessel documents under the laws of the
United States.
- A spouse or dependent of a member of the Armed Forces or any
auxiliary branch thereof.
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Current law allows special absentee voters to register to vote,
apply for, receive and return their ballots by facsimile
transmission. Additionally, special absentee ballots can be
requested as early as 60 days prior to an election, while VBM
ballots are not provided until 29 days prior to an election.
Proposed Law: SB 29 provides that any vote by mail ballot is
timely cast if it is received by the elections official no later
than 3 days after election day, and meets any of the following
criteria:
a) the ballot is postmarked on or before election day or is
time stamped or date stamped by a bona fide private mail
delivery company on or before election day; or,
b) if the ballot has no postmark, has a postmark with no date,
or has an illegible postmark, the vote by mail ballot
identification envelope is signed and dated on or before
election day.
Additionally, SB 29 changes the timeframe for the counties to
prepare a certified statement of the results of the election and
submit it to the governing body from 28 days after the election
to 31 days. This extension will provide the counties with
additional time to canvass the vote due to the anticipated
increase in the number of late ballots that will arrive pursuant
to the enactment of this bill.
Mail delivery has slowed in recent years since the United States
Postal Service has started implementing a plan to significantly
consolidate the postal network's facilities in an effort to
reduce costs. Approximately 200 mail processing facilities are
subject to closure nationwide. Election officials from counties
that were previously served by closed facilities indicated that
some first class mail took five to seven days to arrive after
closures of USPS facilities, compared to the previous delivery
time of one to three days. In addition, the U. S. Postal Service
has recently announced plans to cease Saturday mail delivery
which will exacerbate the timeliness of mail delivery.
Staff Comments: During the November 2010 Statewide Election,
there were approximately 1.7 million vote-by-mail ballots that
were unprocessed the day after the election, but which must be
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counted prior to certifying the election results.
Additionally, many ballots arrived after the election day. For
instance, in the 2010 General Election, Los Angeles County
received 1,976 ballots too late to be counted and Orange County
received 2,423 ballots after the polls were closed. However, it
is likely that substantially more voters will mail their ballots
closer to the day of the election (rather than a couple of weeks
early, for example) once the provisions of SB 29 are enacted.
In order to help the counties to certify the election results on
time, SB 29 extends the canvassing period from 28 days to 31
days, thereby pushing the deadline to certify the results to the
Secretary of State to 34 days after the election. This
extension for the counties could impact the Secretary of State's
ability to comply with state and federal laws to certify the
election results within 38 days after the election.
SB 29 is similar to SB 348 (Correa) which was held on this
committee's Suspense File in 2011, and to AB 562 (Fong) which
failed passage on the Assembly concurrence file in 2012.