BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 29|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 29
Author: Correa (D), et al.
Amended: 8/20/14
Vote: 21
SENATE ELECTIONS & CONST. AMEND. COMM. : 3-1, 3/19/13
AYES: Correa, Hancock, Yee
NOES: Anderson
NO VOTE RECORDED: Padilla
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 5-2, 5/23/13
AYES: De León, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg
NOES: Walters, Gaines
SENATE FLOOR : 27-10, 5/28/13
AYES: Beall, Block, Calderon, Corbett, Correa, De León,
DeSaulnier, Evans, Galgiani, Hancock, Hernandez, Hill, Hueso,
Jackson, Lara, Leno, Lieu, Liu, Monning, Padilla, Pavley,
Price, Roth, Steinberg, Torres, Wright, Yee
NOES: Anderson, Berryhill, Emmerson, Fuller, Gaines, Huff,
Knight, Nielsen, Walters, Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Cannella, Wolk, Vacancy
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 54-25, 8/25/14 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Vote by mail ballots and election result statements
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill allows vote by mail (VBM) ballots to be
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counted if they are cast by Election Day and received by the
elections official by mail no later than three days after the
election.
Assembly Amendments clarify that a VBM ballot is received by the
voter's elections official via the United States Postal Service
or a bona fide private mail delivery; allow jurisdictions that
have the necessary computer capability to begin processing VBM
ballots on the 10th business day prior to the election, instead
of the seventh business day prior to the election; add
double-jointing language with AB 2530 (Rodriguez); and make
other clarifying changes.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1. Provides that a VBM ballot must be received by the elections
official from whom it was obtained, or by a precinct board in
that jurisdiction, no later than the close of polls on
Election Day in order for that ballot to be counted.
2. Requires a VBM ballot identification envelope (return
envelope) to include specified information, including the
signature of the voter and the date of signing.
3. Requires elections officials to prepare a certified statement
of the results of an election and to submit that statement to
the appropriate governing body within 28 days of the
election.
This bill:
1.Provides that a VBM ballot is timely cast if it is received by
the voter's elections official via the United States Postal
Service (USPS) or a bona fide private mail delivery company no
later than three days after election day and either of the
following is satisfied:
A. The ballot is postmarked 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, a postmark with no date,
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or an illegible postmark, the VBM ballot identification
envelope is date stamped by the elections official upon
receipt of the VBM ballot from the USPS or a bona fide
private mail delivery company, and is signed and dated by
the voter on or before Election Day.
1.Allows jurisdictions that have the necessary computer
capability to begin processing VBM ballots on the 10th
business day prior to the election, instead of the seventh
business day prior to the election.
2.Extends the deadline for elections officials to prepare a
certified statement of the results of an election from 28 days
after the election to 30 days after the election.
3.Allows counties to continue to use envelopes and other
official election materials that do not take into account the
provisions of this bill until the supply of those materials is
exhausted.
4.Contains double-jointing language in order to avoid chaptering
problems with AB 2530 (Rodriguez) of the current legislative
session.
Background
VBM ballot deadlines in other states . Each state has its own
deadlines for the return of mail ballots. In some states, the
deadline varies depending on whether the individual submitting
the ballot is a civilian living in the United States, or a
military or overseas voter covered under the Uniformed and
Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA).
According to information from the National Association of
Secretaries of State, three states require mail ballots from
civilians living in the U.S. 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.
11 states and the District of Columbia allow mail ballots from
civilians living in the U.S. 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.
For active duty military and overseas citizens who are covered
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under UOCAVA, one state requires mail ballots to be returned
prior to Election Day in order to be counted, and 32 states
(including California) require ballots to be received by
Election Day. 17 states and the District of Columbia allow mail
ballots from voters who are covered under UOCAVA to arrive after
Election Day and still be counted. Most of those states require
the ballot to be postmarked (or in some cases, signed and dated)
by Election Day.
2010 Primary Election Ballots in Riverside County : In Riverside
County, 12,563 VBM ballots were discovered at a local post
office the day after the June 8, 2010 Statewide Primary
Election. These ballots were eventually accepted by the county
elections official, but only after a superior court judge ruled
that they should be counted. In this instance, the voters had
mailed their ballots in time for normal delivery but county
elections officials, who previously and routinely visited
certain post offices to collect VBM ballots, did not visit the
post office that actually had these ballots. While a plain
reading of the applicable statute would have resulted in these
ballots being rejected, the presiding judge ordered that the
ballots be counted based on a provision of the California
Constitution which reads "A voter who casts a vote in an
election in accordance with the laws of this State shall have
that vote counted."
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, there will be
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 VBM 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
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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.
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/25/13)
Secretary of State
Asian Law Caucus
Asian Pacific American Legal Center
California Association of Clerks and Election Officials
California Common Cause
California Forward
California Teachers Association
CALPIRG
League of Women Voters of California
Rural County Representatives of California
OPPOSITION : (Verified 8/25/14)
Election Integrity Project, Inc.
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The Secretary of State's Office states
in support that, "One of the most common reasons why a VBM
ballot is not counted is because it arrives at the county
elections office after Election Day. Most of these late ballots
arrive within the first three days following an election and in
all but California's smallest counties, elections officials are
still verifying the eligibility of VBM and provisional ballots
for a week or more after Election Day. Therefore, any VBM
ballots that are postmarked by Election Day and arrive within
three days after the election can be easily added to the ongoing
verification process.
"Many voters incorrectly believe the requirement that VBM
ballots be received by their county elections official by
Election Day is really a 'mail by date' because the voter
registration and tax filing deadlines are governed by a postmark
date. The 2012 closures of several post offices and mail
processing facilities have had the effect of slowing mail
delivery in many jurisdictions. Overseas voters are
particularly impacted by delays in mail delivery, and often face
challenges allowing enough time for their ballots to be received
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by Election Day.
By providing more time for completed ballots to reach local
election offices, SB 29 will ensure that thousands of voters who
take the time to fill out and cast their ballot will have that
ballot counted."
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers
Association states in opposition that, "SB 29 allows for ballots
postmarked by Election Day to still be counted if they are
received by the County Registrar of Voters within three days
following election day. In addition, it allows for ballots that
have no postmark, a postmark with no date, or an illegible
postmark to be dropped off by USPS or a private mail delivery
company as long as the ballot is signed and dated on or before
Election Day. It is over this latter provision that we must
oppose the bill.
"We sympathize with the author's desire to ensure that voters
are not disenfranchised. We recall the situation in Riverside
County in 2010 when over 20,000 ballots originally were not
counted after being found in a Post Office the day after the
election. However, this bill attempts to fix that problem by
creating new ones. For instance, a ballot without a postmark
leads one to question its legitimacy. How do election officials
know it wasn't filled out after the election?
"Also, the term 'bona fide private mail company' is not defined
in the bill. By this, one assumes the author's intent is to
reference FedEx or UPS, but this is not specified in the bill.
Presumably anyone could walk in off the street and drop off a
ballot after election day as long as it was back-dated to
election day.
"If SB 29 becomes law it will lead to votes being cast after the
polls have closed. Beyond adding hundreds of thousands of
dollars in new election costs, SB 29 fundamentally alters the
integrity of our elections process and could lead to untold
amounts of fraud."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 54-25, 08/25/14
AYES: Alejo, Ammiano, Bloom, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta,
Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau,
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Chesbro, Cooley, Dababneh, Daly, Dickinson, Eggman, Fong, Fox,
Frazier, Garcia, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Hall, Roger
Hernández, Holden, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Lowenthal, Medina,
Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Pan, Perea, John A. Pérez, V.
Manuel Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas,
Rodriguez, Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Weber, Wieckowski,
Williams, Yamada, Atkins
NOES: Achadjian, Allen, Bigelow, Chávez, Conway, Dahle,
Donnelly, Beth Gaines, Gatto, Gorell, Grove, Hagman, Harkey,
Jones, Linder, Logue, Maienschein, Mansoor, Melendez,
Nestande, Olsen, Patterson, Wagner, Waldron, Wilk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Vacancy
RM:nl:k 8/26/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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