BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 362|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 362
Author: Padilla (D)
Amended: 8/5/13
Vote: 21
SENATE ELECTIONS & CONSTITUTIONAL AMEND. COMM. : 4-1, 4/30/13
AYES: Correa, Hancock, Padilla, Yee
NOES: Anderson
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 5-0, 5/13/13
AYES: De León, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg
NO VOTE RECORDED: Walters, Gaines
SENATE FLOOR : 30-7, 5/16/13
AYES: Beall, Berryhill, Block, Calderon, Cannella, Corbett,
Correa, De León, DeSaulnier, Emmerson, Evans, Galgiani,
Hancock, Hernandez, Hill, Hueso, Jackson, Lara, Leno, Lieu,
Liu, Monning, Padilla, Pavley, Roth, Steinberg, Wolk, Wright,
Wyland, Yee
NOES: Anderson, Fuller, Gaines, Huff, Knight, Nielsen, Walters
NO VOTE RECORDED: Price, Vacancy, Vacancy
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 57-19, 8/26/13 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Voting procedures: natural disasters
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill authorizes an out-of-state emergency
worker, as defined, to cast a ballot outside of his/her precinct
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upon the declaration of an out-of-state emergency by the
Governor and the issuance of an executive order, as specified.
Assembly Amendments delete provisions relating to an "emergency
worker" and add provisions for "out-of-state emergency workers."
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1. 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/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.
2. 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:
1. Defines an "out-of-state emergency worker," for the purposes
of this bill, to mean a voter 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.
2. Requires a county elections official, upon the declaration of
an out-of-state emergency by the Governor and the issuance of
an executive order authorizing an out-of-state emergency
worker, as defined, to cast a ballot outside his/her home
precinct, to issue, upon request of an out-of-state emergency
worker, a vote-by-mail (VBM) ballot to the out-of-state
emergency worker using a process determined by that elections
official. Requires the process to include all of the
following:
A. Authorization for an out-of-state emergency worker
to request a VBM ballot after the close of the VBM
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ballot application period as specified by current law.
B. Authorization for a VBM ballot and accompanying
voting materials to be sent to an out-of-state
emergency worker by mail, facsimile transmission, or
email, as requested by the out-of-state emergency
worker. Permits an elections official to use
reasonable facsimiles of the sample ballot sent to
voters as a VBM ballot.
C. A requirement that an out-of-state emergency worker
mark the VBM ballot provided to him/her, place it in
the VBM identification envelope, and return the VBM
ballot to the elections official from whom it was
obtained. Provides if no identification envelope is
provided, the envelope used to return the VBM ballot
must include information pursuant to existing law and a
statement signed under penalty of perjury that the
voter is an out-of-state emergency worker.
3. Provides that in order to be counted, a VBM ballot cast
pursuant to this bill shall be received in accordance with
current law.
4. Requires an elections official to receive and canvass the VBM
ballots described in the bill under the same procedure as VBM
ballots under existing law.
5. Makes various findings and declarations.
Background
Existing law, pursuant to AB 1440 (Swanson, Chapter 395,
Statutes of 2009) allows emergency personnel who are officially
engaged in responding to a state-of-emergency after a disaster
such as fire or earthquake to vote in an election by casting a
provisional ballot within any county in California and further
requires that county elections official to forward that ballot
to the appropriate county where the voter resides.
California residents often volunteer to assist in the recovery
of natural disasters that occur outside of this state. Family
members and professionals such as firefighters, police officers,
National Guardsmen, utility workers, and other California
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residents travel to areas affected by disasters for extended
periods of time to help with recovery efforts. Sometimes these
efforts are close to election times and affect the individual's
ability to cast his/her vote in a timely manner.
For instance, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the L. A.
Department of Water & Power, SoCal Edison, San Diego Gas &
Electric, Pacific Gas & Electric, the California Red Cross,
National Guard, and the California Emergency Management Urban
Search and Rescue Team were among many organizations that left
California right before the election. Many of these individuals
were unable to vote because the deadline to register as a VBM
voter had already passed.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, unknown but
likely less than $25,000 (General).
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/27/13)
Secretary of State, Debra Bowen
American Red Cross
California professional Firefighters
Coachella Valley Water District
Common Cause
League of Women Voters
National Council for Jewish Women
Pacific Gas and Electric
PowerPAC.org
Rock the Vote
Sacramento Municipal Utility District
San Diego Gas & Electric Company
Sempra Energy
Service Employees International Union
Southern California gas Company
Verified Voting Communication Workers of America
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office,
California 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
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affect a volunteer's ability to vote, such as Hurricane Sandy
which occurred a week before the 2012 Presidential Election.
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.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 57-19, 8/26/13
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Ammiano, Atkins, Bloom, Bocanegra,
Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian Calderon,
Campos, Chau, Chesbro, Cooley, Daly, Dickinson, Eggman, Fong,
Fox, Frazier, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray,
Hall, Roger Hernández, Holden, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder,
Lowenthal, Medina, Mitchell, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian,
Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel Pérez, Quirk,
Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Weber,
Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, John A. Pérez
NOES: Allen, Bigelow, Chávez, Conway, Dahle, Donnelly, Beth
Gaines, Grove, Hagman, Harkey, Jones, Logue, Maienschein,
Mansoor, Melendez, Morrell, Patterson, Wagner, Waldron
NO VOTE RECORDED: Gorell, Wilk, Vacancy, Vacancy
RM:d 8/27/13 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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