BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 477
Page 1
Date of Hearing: September 9, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, Chair
AB 477
(Mullin) - As Amended September 1, 2015
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
--------------------------------------------------------------------
|ASSEMBLY: |50-29 |(May 14, 2015) |SENATE: |26-14 |(September 3, |
| | | | | |2015) |
--------------------------------------------------------------------
SUBJECT: Elections: ballots and the Green Party.
SUMMARY: Allows a voter who failed to sign his or her vote by
mail (VBM) identification envelope to complete and sign an
unsigned ballot statement up to eight 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 8th day after the election;
AB 477
Page 2
b) Before 5 p.m. on the 8th 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 dropoff 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.
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
AB 477
Page 3
that have been determined to compare, and that demonstrates
the progression of the voter's signature.
The Senate amendments:
1)Decrease the number of days that a voter has to complete and
sign an unsigned ballot statement from 10 days after the
election to eight days after the election.
2)Delete provisions of the bill that required the Secretary of
State (SOS) to include the unsigned ballot statement and
instructions on his or her Internet Web site, as specified.
3)Establish procedures for the Green Party to participate in the
presidential primary, authorize the Green Party to establish
county councils by election, as specified, and establish a
Green Party state coordinating committee, as specified.
4)Add double-jointing language to avoid chaptering problems with
AB 1020 (Ridley-Thomas) of the current legislative session.
5)Make other technical and non-substantive changes.
EXISTING LAW:
AB 477
Page 4
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.
1)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
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.
2)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.
3)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
AB 477
Page 5
envelope.
4)Authorizes an elections official, in comparing signatures, to
use signature verification technology. Prohibits an elections
official, if the signature verification technology determines
the signatures do not compare, from rejecting the ballot
unless he or she visually examines the signatures and verifies
that the signatures do not compare.
5)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.
6)Provides for specific procedures by which the Democratic
Party, the Republican Party, the American Independent Party,
and the Peace and Freedom Party participate in the
presidential primary. Authorizes the Democratic Party, the
Republican Party, the American Independent Party, and the
Peace and Freedom Party to elect county central committees and
establish state central committees, as specified.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee:
1)This bill would likely result in state reimbursable costs to
local elections officials, potentially exceeding $50,000
(General Fund).
AB 477
Page 6
2)Costs to the SOS would be minor and absorbable.
COMMENTS:
1)Prior Committee Consideration of this Measure: In April, this
committee considered and approved this measure on a 4-2 vote.
At the time, this bill allowed a voter who failed to sign his
or her VBM identification envelope to complete and sign an
unsigned ballot statement up to ten days after the election,
as specified, in order to have his or her ballot counted.
Subsequent to the committee's approval of this measure, it was
amended in the Senate to add provisions that establish
procedures for the Green Party to participate in the
presidential primary, authorize the Green Party to establish
county councils by election, and establish a Green Party state
coordinating committee, among other changes. As a result,
this bill has been re-referred to this committee for further
consideration pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.2.
2)Purpose of the Bill: 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.
AB 477
Page 7
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.
3)Vote By Mail Ballot Rejection: 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 percent of
California's voters chose to cast their ballot using a VBM
ballot. This totaled 6.6 million ballots. However,
AB 477
Page 8
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 8th
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 8th day after election day or, alternatively, dropped off
at a polling place or in a dropoff box within the county the
AB 477
Page 9
voter is registered before the polls close on election day.
4)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 eight days after election
day, will, theoretically, provide county elections officials
with more time to alert a voter of their unsigned VBM ballot
and allow a voter time to correct the lack of signature on the
VBM identification envelope.
AB 477
Page 10
5)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 8th day after election day.
6)Green Party: Current law provides for specific procedures by
which the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, the American
Independent Party, and the Peace and Freedom Party participate
in the presidential primary. In addition, existing law
authorizes the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, the
American Independent Party, and the Peace and Freedom Party to
each elect county central committees and establish state
AB 477
Page 11
central committees, as specified. Similarly, this bill
establishes procedures for the Green Party to participate in
the presidential primary and authorizes the Green Party to
establish county councils by election and to establish a state
coordinating committee, as specified.
7)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, identifying differences between
these programs and recommending improvements that can be
implemented so that more mail ballots that are cast can be
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.
8)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:
AB 477
Page 12
Support
California Voter Foundation
VerifiedVoting.org
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by:Nichole Becker / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094