BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 477
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 15, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, Chair
AB 477
(Mullin) - As Amended April 8, 2015
SUBJECT: Elections: vote by mail ballots.
SUMMARY: Allows a voter who failed to sign his or her vote by
mail (VBM) identification envelope to sign a statement up to 10
days after the election, as specified, in order to have his or
her ballot counted. Specifically, this bill:
1)Prohibits an elections official, if he or she determines that
a voter has failed to sign the VBM identification envelope,
from rejecting the VBM ballot if the voter does any of the
following:
a) Signs the identification envelope at the office of the
elections official during regular business hours before 5
p.m. on the 10th day after the election;
b) Before 5 p.m. on the 10th day after the election,
completes and submits an unsigned ballot statement to be in
substantially the following form;
"UNSIGNED BALLOT STATEMENT
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I, am a registered voter of __________ County, State of
California. I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I
requested and returned a vote by mail ballot and that I
have not and will not vote more than one ballot in this
election. I understand that if I commit or attempt any
fraud in connection with voting, or if I aid or abet fraud
or attempt to aid or abet fraud in connection with voting,
I may be convicted of a felony punishable by imprisonment
for 16 months or two or three years. I understand that my
failure to sign this statement means that my vote by mail
ballot will be invalidated.
Voter's Signature
Address"
c) Before the polls close on election day, completes and
submits an unsigned ballot statement, in the form described
above, to a polling place within the county or ballot
drop-off box.
2)Requires an elections official, if timely submitted, to accept
any completed unsigned ballot statement. Requires an elections
official, upon receipt of the unsigned ballot statement, to
compare the voter's signature on the statement in the manner
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provided by current law.
3)Requires an elections official, if he or she determines that
the signatures compare, to attach the unsigned ballot
statement to the identification envelope and deposit the
ballot, still in the identification envelope, in a ballot
container in his or her office.
4)Prohibits an elections official, if he or she determines that
the signatures do not compare, from opening the identification
envelope and prohibits the ballot from being counted.
5)Permits an elections official to use methods other than those
described above to obtain a voter's signature on an unsigned
identification envelope.
6)Requires instructions to accompany the unsigned ballot
statement to be in substantially the following form:
"READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE COMPLETING THE
STATEMENT. FAILURE TO FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS MAY CAUSE
YOUR BALLOT NOT TO COUNT.
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1. In order to ensure that your vote by mail ballot will be
counted, your statement should be completed and returned as
soon as possible so that it can reach the elections
official of the county in which your precinct is located no
later than 5 p.m. on the tenth day after the election.
2. You must sign your name on the line above (Voter's
Signature).
3. Place the statement into a mailing envelope addressed to
your local elections official. Mail, deliver, or have
delivered the completed statement to the elections
official. Be sure there is sufficient postage if mailed and
that the address of the elections official is correct.
4. Alternatively, you may submit your completed statement
by facsimile transmission to your local elections official,
or submit your completed statement to a polling place
within the county or a ballot drop off box before the close
of the polls on election day.
7)Requires the Secretary of State to include the unsigned ballot
statement and instructions described above on his or her
Internet Web site, and provide a list of mailing addresses,
and facsimile transmission numbers of all elections officials,
or provide conspicuous hyperlinks to that information, on the
Internet Web page containing the statement and instructions.
8)Requires an elections official to include the unsigned ballot
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statement and instructions described above on his or her
Internet Web site, and provide the elections official's
mailing address, and facsimile transmission number on the
Internet Web page containing the statement and instructions.
9)Allows an elections official to compare the signature on a VBM
ballot identification envelope with a signature appearing on
any form issued by the elections official that contains the
voter's signature and that is part of the voter's registration
record, instead of providing that an elections official may
make a determination of whether the signature on a voter's VBM
ballot identification envelope compares to the voter's
registration record by reviewing a series of signatures
appearing on official forms in the voter's registration record
that have been determined to compare, and that demonstrates
the progression of the voter's signature.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Requires a county elections official, upon receiving a VBM
ballot, to compare the signatures
on the envelope with either of the following:
a) The signature appearing on any previous affidavit of
registration of the voter; or,
b) The signature appearing on a form issued by an elections
official that contains the voter's signature, that is part
of the voter's registration record, and that the elections
official has determined compares with the signature on the
voter's affidavit of registration or any previous affidavit
of registration of the voter.
2)Permits an elections official to make the determination of
whether a signature on a VBM ballot compares with the
signatures on file for that voter by reviewing a series of
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signatures appearing on official forms in the voter's
registration record that have been determined to compare, that
demonstrate the progression of the voter's signature, and
makes evident that the signature on the identification
envelope is that of the voter.
3)Permits a county elections official to use the duplicate file
of affidavits of registered voters or facsimiles of voters'
signatures when determining from the records of registration
if the signature and residence address compare, as specified.
4)Provides that if the ballot is rejected because the signatures
do not compare, the envelope shall not be opened and the
ballot shall not be counted. Requires the cause of the
rejection to be written on the face of the identification
envelope.
5)Authorizes an elections official, in comparing signatures, to
use signature verification technology. Prohibits an elections
official, if the signature verification technology determines
the signatures does not compare, from rejecting the ballot
unless he or she visually examines the signatures and verifies
that the signatures do not compare.
6)Allows VBM ballots to be counted if they are cast by election
day and received by the elections official by mail no later
than three days after the election, as specified.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown. State-mandated local program: contains
reimbursement direction.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose of the Bill: According to the author:
AB 477 will reduce the number of legitimate vote-by-mail
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ballots that are rejected, ensuring that fewer voters are
disenfranchised. California has one of the highest ballot
rejection rates in the country, which is especially
disconcerting because vote-by-mail ballot use has increased
rapidly in recent years, with 60 percent of voters casting
their ballots by mail in last November's general election.
With such high usage rates, it is imperative the state do
everything possible to minimize the number of discarded
legitimate ballots.
69,000 ballots were rejected in the 2012 general election.
About one-quarter of vote-by-mail ballots were thrown out
because the signature on the ballot envelope did not match
the signature on record. With the advent of online voter
registration, many voters' signatures are pulled from their
Department of Motor Vehicles file. In many cases, this
signature is out of date or the voter was unable to sign
clearly because they used an electronic signature pad. AB
477 would reduce the number of ballots thrown out because
of mismatching signatures by allowing elections officials
to use other signatures in a voter's registration record to
verify vote-by-mail envelopes.
In addition, about 17 percent of ballots are not counted
because the voter failed to sign his or her ballot envelope
altogether. To remedy this, AB 477 allows elections
officials to collect a voter's signature on a separate
form, signed under penalty of perjury. This policy has been
successfully implemented in both Florida and Colorado.
Lastly, the bill also incorporates another successful
Colorado law by allowing elections officials to collect
signatures on unsigned ballots after Election Day.
2)Vote By Mail Ballot Rejection: The UC Davis California Civic
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Engagement Project conducted a statewide survey of
California's 58 county election offices to gain a better
understanding of California's use of VBM ballots, including
return methods. According to their September 2014 brief,
entitled "California's Uncounted VBM Ballots: Indentifying
Variation in County Processing," in 2012, for the first time
in a statewide general election, over 50 percent of
California's voters chose to cast their ballot via VBM. This
totaled 6.6 million ballots. However, approximately one
percent of those VBM ballots received by the elections
official were rejected during ballot processing. That amounts
to approximately 69,000 ballots. According to the survey, late
receipt was the most common reason why a VBM ballot was
uncounted. Signature issues, such as a missing signature or a
mismatching signature, were the other top two reasons for VBM
ballot rejection.
In an effort to remedy the significant VBM ballot rejection
rate, last session the Legislature approved and Governor Brown
signed SB 29 (Correa), Chapter 618, Statutes of 2014, which
allowed VBM ballots to be counted if they are cast by election
day and received by the elections official by mail no later
than three days after the election, as specified. The signing
and implementation of SB 29 (Correa), was ground breaking as
it represented the first time that California state law
explicitly has allowed any ballot which was received after
election day to be counted.
According to the author's statement, the goal of this bill is to
address those VBM ballots that arrive with no signature. This
bill will help remedy this problem by prohibiting an elections
official, if a voter has failed to sign the VBM identification
envelope, from rejecting the VBM ballot, as specified. This
bill creates a new process that permits a voter to either sign
the identification envelope of his or her VBM ballot at the
elections official's office or complete and submit an unsigned
ballot statement before 5 p.m. on the 10th day after the
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election, as specified. If the voter chooses to complete and
submit an unsigned ballot statement, this bill requires that
the unsigned ballot statement be mailed or delivered to the
elections official's office before 5 p.m. on the 10th day
after election day or, alternatively, dropped off at a polling
place or in a drop-off box within the county the voter is
registered before the polls close on election day.
3)Current Procedures for Processing Unsigned VBM Ballots:
Current law does not require county elections officials to
contact a voter and inform them that his or her ballot was not
counted. However, in practice, when it comes to VBM ballots
being rejected due to missing signatures, county elections
officials attempt to contact the voter prior to election day
in order to provide them the opportunity to correct their
ballot. According to the UC Davis California Civic Engagement
Project survey referenced above, nearly all counties utilize
multiple methods to contact a voter, such as contacting the
voter by phone, email, or mailing the VBM ballot back.
However, because current law does not require a voter to
provide a phone number or email when an individual registers
to vote or requests a VBM ballot, efforts to contact a voter
remain a challenge as a voter's phone number and email may not
be updated or available. While this bill sets up a new
process that will help ensure that a voter who votes by mail
and forgets to sign his or her VBM ballot has an opportunity
to ensure their ballot is counted, one major issue remains
unresolved - county elections officials will still face
similar challenges when attempting to contact a voter to alert
them of a missing signature.
On the other hand, because phone numbers and emails are
difficult for an elections official to obtain, mail is usually
the only available recourse when contacting a voter. This
bill, which permits an unsigned ballot statement to be
received by an elections official 10 days after election day,
will, theoretically, provide county elections officials with
more time to alert a voter of their unsigned VBM ballot and
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allow a voter time to correct the lack of signature on the VBM
identification envelope.
4)Florida and Colorado Laws: According to the author, this bill
was partially inspired by election laws in Florida and
Colorado. Florida law requires an election supervisor, until
5 p.m. on the day before an election, to allow a voter who has
returned an unsigned absentee ballot to complete and submit an
affidavit in order to cure the unsigned absentee ballot, as
specified. This bill mirrors some aspects of Florida's law
and prohibits an elections official, if a voter has failed to
sign his or her VBM identification envelope, from rejecting
the VBM ballot. Specifically, this bill permits the voter to
complete and submit an unsigned ballot statement to the
elections official, as specified.
This bill also incorporates components of a Colorado election
law pertaining to unsigned mail or provisional ballots.
Colorado requires an elections official, if a mail or
provisional ballot return envelope lacks a signature, to
contact the voter in writing no later than two calendar days
after election day. Colorado requires an elections official
to send a letter to the voter informing the voter that he or
she must sign and return a Signature Affidavit Form in person
or by mail, facsimile, or email no later than eight days after
the election. This bill contains similar provisions and
requires a voter to complete and submit an unsigned ballot
statement in person or by mail or fax, not email, by the 5
p.m. on the 10th day after election day.
5)Arguments in Support: In support of this bill, the California
Voter Foundation, writes:
Last year the [California Voter Foundation] published a
first-of-its-kind, in-depth study of three counties'
vote-by-mail programs, indentifying differences between
these programs and recommending improvements that can be
implemented so that more mail ballots that are cast can be
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counted. Our study found that two counties - Sacramento
and Orange - when voters fail to sign their VBM envelope,
the voter is contacted and urged to come to the election
office and sign the envelope there. In the third county
studied - Santa Cruz - ballots that lack a signature are
mailed back to the voter to be signed and re-submitted,
creating some confusion as to whether new postage needs to
be affixed to the VBM envelope. By providing an additional
method for county registrars to collect a VBM voter's
missing signature, [AB 477] will help increase the VBM
ballot success rate.
6)Previous Legislation: AB 1135 (Mullin), Chapter 271, Statutes
of 2013, expands the list of documents a county elections
official may use to compare to the signature on a VBM ballot
identification envelope, as specified.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
California Voter Foundation
VerifiedVoting.org
Opposition
None on file.
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Analysis Prepared by:Nichole Becker / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094