BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  SB 29
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   August 13, 2014

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                  Mike Gatto, Chair

                    SB 29 (Correa) - As Amended:  August 11, 2014

          Policy Committee:                             ElectionsVote:5-2

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          Yes    Reimbursable:              Yes

           SUMMARY  

          This bill allows vote-by-mail (VBM) ballots to be received by  
          elections officials after election day. Specifically, this bill:

          1)Provides that VBM ballots, including those of military and  
            overseas voters, are timely cast if received by mail or a bona  
            fide private delivery company no later than three days after  
            election day and either of the following is satisfied:

             a)   The ballot is postmarked or time-stamped on or before  
               election day.

             b)   If the ballot has no postmark, a postmark with no date,  
               or an illegible postmark, the VBM identification envelope  
               is date-stamped by the elections official upon receipt and  
               signed and dated on or before election day.

          2)Allows jurisdictions having the necessary computer capability  
            to begin processing VBM ballots on the 10th rather than the  
            7th business day prior to an election.

          3)Extends, from 28 days to 30 days after the election, the  
            deadline for elections officials to submit the certified  
            statement of election results.

          4)Allows counties to use envelopes and other materials that do  
            not take into account the above changes until supplies are  
            exhausted.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Minor net reimbursable costs or minor net savings. 








                                                                 SB 29
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          County elections officials will incur additional costs to  
          manually check for a postmark on all ballots arriving up to  
          three days following election day and to date-stamp ballots  
          received within this timeframe that do not have a postmark. An  
          unofficial count indicates that more than 20,000 ballots arrived  
          too late to be counted at the last statewide general election.  
          At this level, the additional costs to counties statewide would  
          likely be very minor. As more voters become aware that they may  
          mail their VBM ballot as late as election day, many more ballots  
          are likely to arrive after election day, and the additional  
          costs to counties will increase commensurately. Offsetting these  
          additional costs, however, are provisions in the bill allowing  
          counties to begin processing VBM ballots three days earlier and  
          providing two additional days to certify election results. These  
          provisions will reduce counties' personnel costs to conduct  
          every election. The likely net result of this bill is thus  
          insignificant net costs or savings.  

           
          COMMENTS  

           1)Purpose  . According to the author, "Late delivery of otherwise  
            valid ballots has long been a problem but will grow worse  
            given the U.S. Postal Service's plans to continue closing mail  
            processing centers. According to estimates, as many as 26,000  
            mail ballots arrived too late to be counted in California's  
            November 2010 election - and this was prior to the USPS  
            cutbacks?Numerous states grant additional time for the arrival  
            of regular vote-by-mail ballots or military and overseas  
            ballots."

           2)Postal Service Facility Closures and Mail Delays  . According to  
            elections officials, one of the most significant impacts of  
            recent postal service facility closures on the election  
            process is significant delays in mail delivery in some  
            circumstances. Elections officials from counties served by  
            closed facilities have indicated that some first class mail  
            has taken five to seven days to arrive after those closures,  
            compared to the usual delivery time of one to three days.

          To the extent that these closures and additional future closures  
            planned by the USPS result in mail delivery delays, voters who  
            mail their ballots within a reasonable timeframe could,  
            through no fault of their own, be disenfranchised.








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           3)Deadlines in Other States . According to the National  
            Association of Secretaries of State, three states require mail  
            ballots from civilians living in the US to be returned prior  
            to election day in order to be counted, while 36 states  
            (including California) require such ballots to be received by  
            election day.  Eleven states and the District of Columbia  
            allow mail ballots from civilians living in the US to arrive  
            after election day and still be counted as long as the ballot  
            is postmarked (or in some cases, signed and dated) by election  
            day.

           4)Related Legislation  : AB 269 (Grove), pending in Senate  
            Appropriations, allows the VBM ballot of a military or  
            overseas voter to arrive up to three days after the election  
            and still be counted, provided the ballot is postmarked by the  
            U.S. Postal Service or the Military Postal Service Agency on  
            or before election day.

           5)Prior Legislation  : SB 348 (Correa) of 2011, which allowed VBM  
            ballots to be counted if postmarked by election day and  
            received by the elections official no later than six days  
            after the election, was held on Suspense in Senate  
            Appropriations.

          AB 562 (Fong) of 2012, an urgency measure similar to this bill,  
            failed on concurrence in the Assembly.

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081