BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 477 Page 1 ASSEMBLY THIRD READING AB 477 (Mullin) As Amended April 8, 2015 Majority vote -------------------------------------------------------------------- |Committee |Votes |Ayes |Noes | |----------------+------+----------------------+---------------------| |Elections |4-2 |Ridley-Thomas, |Grove, Gatto | | | |Gordon, Mullin, Perea | | | | | | | |----------------+------+----------------------+---------------------| |Appropriations |12-5 |Gomez, Bloom, Bonta, |Bigelow, Chang, | | | |Calderon, Daly, |Gallagher, Jones, | | | |Eggman, Eduardo |Wagner | | | |Garcia, Holden, | | | | |Quirk, Rendon, Weber, | | | | |Wood | | | | | | | | | | | | -------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 AB 477 Page 2 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, as specified; or, c) Before the polls close on election day, completes and submits an unsigned ballot statement 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 provided by current law. 3)Permits an elections official to use methods other than those described above to obtain a voter's signature on an unsigned identification envelope. 4)Requires instructions to accompany the unsigned ballot statement, as specified. AB 477 Page 3 5)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. FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee: 1)Costs to elections officials would be state reimbursable, but should be minor such that mandate claims would be unlikely, but if filed, would not exceed $30,000 statewide. 2)Any costs to the Secretary of State would be minor and absorbable. AB 477 Page 4 COMMENTS: According to the author, "AB 477 will reduce the number of legitimate vote-by-mail 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?" The UC Davis California Civic 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: Identifying Variation in County Processing," in 2012, for the first time in a statewide general election, over 50% of California's voters chose to cast their ballot via VBM. This totaled 6.6 million ballots. However, approximately 1% 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. 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 AB 477 Page 5 official's office or complete and submit an unsigned ballot statement before 5 p.m. on the 10th day after the 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. Please see the policy committee analysis for a full discussion of this bill. Analysis Prepared by: Nichole Becker / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094 FN: 0000239