BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS
AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Lou Correa, Chair
BILL NO: SB 362 HEARING DATE: 04/30/13
AUTHOR: PADILLA ANALYSIS BY: Frances Tibon
Estoista
AMENDED: 04/08/13
FISCAL: YES
SUBJECT
Voting procedures: natural disasters
DESCRIPTION
Existing law provides, upon the declaration of a state of
emergency by the Governor and the issuance of an executive
order authorizing an emergency worker to cast a ballot
outside of his or her home precinct, elections officials in
the counties included in the executive order shall, upon
demand, issue to an emergency worker a provisional ballot
that may be identical to the provisional ballot offered to
other voters in the county, using a process to be
determined by the elections official.
Existing law also requires an elections official to
transmit for processing any ballot cast, including any
materials necessary to process the ballot, to the elections
official in the county where the voter is registered to
vote.
This bill finds and declares all of the following:
Natural disasters outside California can affect a state
resident's ability to vote. Earthquakes, hurricanes,
and other disasters can destroy or damage election
infrastructure, including the electrical and
telecommunications grid and polling places, disrupt the
delivery of VBM ballots by the United States Postal
Service, and displace election officials and interrupt
their duties.
California residents volunteer to help victims of
natural disasters, including their family members.
California voters, such as firefighters, police
officers, National Guardsmen, utility workers, and
average citizens travel to areas affected by disasters
for extended periods of time to help with recovery
efforts that can include other states and countries.
Disasters and volunteer efforts can occur close to an
election and affect a volunteer's ability to vote.
Currently, neither the Governor, the Secretary of State
(SOS), nor county elections officials have the authority
to establish procedures and guidelines to specifically
allow residents affected by an out-of-state disaster to
vote.
This bill defines "emergency worker" as a person who is
officially engaged in responding to the proclamation of an
out-of-state emergency and whose vocation has been
identified in an executive order relating to the state of
emergency.
This bill provides that upon the declaration of an
out-of-state emergency by the Governor and the issuance of
an executive order authorizing an emergency worker to cast
a ballot outside of his or her home precinct, a county
elections official shall, upon request, issue a VBM ballot
to an emergency worker using a process to be determined by
that elections official.
This bill requires that in order to be counted, a VBM
ballot cast by a voter be received by the elections
official no later than three days after election day and
postmarked on or before election day or time-stamped or
date-stamped by a private mail delivery company on or
before election day.
This bill requires that upon receipt of the returned
ballot, an elections official process the ballot.
This bill provides that a VBM ballot may be sent to the
emergency worker via electronic mail or facsimile.
BACKGROUND
When PG&E sent crews to the East Coast to help restore
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power because of Hurricane Sandy, many of the crewmembers
were unable to vote prior to their departure. This
predicament was not unique to PG&E and it extended to other
utilities both in and out of California along with disaster
relief workers from groups like the Red Cross.
Questions were raised internally about how PG&E could help
its employees vote especially after a few exceptions were
made in other states that are in closer proximity to the
impacted areas:
Governor O'Malley of Maryland signed an executive order
assisting those who could not apply for an absentee
ballot due to Hurricane Sandy.
Governor Christie of New Jersey made available the
ability for voters displaced by the storm to vote by
email.
Florida Power and Light deployed assistance workers in
response to Hurricane Sandy with crewmembers
coordinating absentee ballot requests in the field.
Alliant Energy also assisted and coordinated absentee
ballot delivery to workers in the field with a law firm
in Albany, New York.
PG&E worked with Sempra, Southern California Edison and the
SOS's office to devise a way for workers to vote on the
local level, as each county in California has a different
set of rules. Various options were investigated, but then
jettisoned because they could not be implemented due to
legal authority or timing issues. In the end, PG&E and the
other California utilities appear to have run out of time
due to California election law and a tight turnaround time.
COMMENTS
1. According to the author : Californian residents
volunteer to assist in natural disaster relief efforts
across the U.S. and the world. They travel to areas
affected by disasters for extended periods of time to
help with recovery. These efforts can occur close to an
election and affect a volunteer's ability to vote, such
as Hurricane Sandy which occurred a week before the 2012
Presidential Election.
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In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy the Los Angeles
Department of Water & Power, SoCal Edison, San Diego Gas
& Electric, Pacific Gas & Electric, the California Red
Cross, the California National Guard, and the California
Emergency Management Urban Search and Rescue Team, and
many other California residents went to New York and New
Jersey to volunteer.
The California volunteers had little time to prepare
special arrangements to vote and the deadline to apply
for an absentee ballot had already passed. The deadline
is seven days before an election. Neither the Governor
nor Secretary of State nor County Election Officials had
the authority to allow the volunteers to vote under
special circumstances.
2. Related legislation : AB 1440 (Swanson), Ch. 395,
Statutes of 2009, allows emergency personnel who are
officially engaged in responding to a state of
emergency after a disaster such as fire, earthquake,
etc., to vote in an election by casting a provisional
ballot within any county in California.
AB 214 (Skinner) of this session would require the SOS,
by December 31, 2014, and in consultation with county
elections officials, to establish procedures and
guidelines for voting in the event of a natural
disaster or other state of emergency. Also requires
the SOS publish those procedures and guidelines on his
or her Internet Web site. AB 214 just passed out of
the Assembly.
POSITIONS
Sponsor: Author
Support: American Red Cross
California State Council of the Service Employees
International Union
(SEIU)
Common Cause
Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E)
PowerPAC.org
Rock the Vote
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Secretary of State
Oppose: None received
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