BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 562|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 562
Author: Holden (D)
Amended: 5/6/15 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE ELECTIONS & C.A. COMMITTEE: 5-0, 6/16/15
AYES: Allen, Anderson, Hancock, Hertzberg, Liu
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 74-0, 5/22/15 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: Elections: ballots
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill requires the Office of the Superintendent of
Public Instruction (SPI) to be listed on the ballot under the
heading of STATEWIDE EDUCATION; requires the Office of SPI to
appear on the ballot immediately after the races for State
Assembly; and makes other technical changes.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Sets forth the order of precedence of offices and measures on
the ballot, and requires the Office of SPI to be listed in the
ballot under the heading, SCHOOL.
2)Requires every ballot to contain the following:
a) The title of each office, arranged to conform as nearly
as practical in accordance with existing law;
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b) The names of all qualified candidates, as specified; and
c) The titles and summaries of measures submitted to a vote
of the voters.
3)Requires the offices on the ballot to be listed in the order
detailed below, beginning in the column to the left:
a) Under the heading, PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT (at a
Presidential general election): Nominees of the qualified
political parties and independent nominees for President
and Vice President.
b) Under the heading, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (at a
Presidential primary election): Names of the presidential
candidates to whom the delegates are pledged and names of
the chairpersons of unpledged delegations.
c) Under the heading STATE:
i) Governor;
ii) Lieutenant Governor;
iii) Secretary of State;
iv) Controller;
v) Treasurer;
vi) Attorney General;
vii) Insurance Commissioner; and
viii) Member, State Board of Equalization.
d) Under the heading, UNITED STATES SENATOR: Candidates or
nominees to the United States Senate.
e) Under the heading, UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE:
Candidates or nominees to the House of Representatives of
the United States.
f) Under the heading, STATE SENATOR: Candidates or
nominees to the State Senate.
g) Under the heading, MEMBER OF THE STATE ASSEMBLY:
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Candidates or nominees to the Assembly.
h) Under the heading, COUNTY COMMITTEE: Members of the
County Central Committee.
i) Under the heading, JUDICIAL:
i) Chief Justice of California;
ii) Associate Justice of the Supreme Court;
iii) Presiding Justice, Court of Appeal;
iv) Associate Justice, Court of Appeal;
v) Judge of the Superior Court; and
vi) Marshal.
j) Under the heading, SCHOOL:
i) Superintendent of Public Instruction;
ii) County Superintendent of Schools;
iii) County Board of Education Members;
iv) College District Governing Board Members;
v) Unified District Governing Board Members;
vi) High School District Governing Board Members;
and
vii) Elementary District Governing Board Members.
aa) Under the heading, COUNTY:
i) County Supervisor; and
ii) Other offices in alphabetical order by the title
of the office.
bb) Under the heading, CITY:
i) Mayor;
ii) Member, City Council; and
iii) Other offices in alphabetical order by the title
of the office.
cc) Under the heading, DISTRICT: Directors or trustees for
each district in alphabetical order according to the name
of the district.
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dd) Under the heading, MEASURES SUBMITTED TO THE VOTERS,
ballot measures beginning with state measures.
4)Permits county elections officials to vary the order of
school, county, city, and district offices and measures in
order to allow for the most efficient use of space on the
ballot provided that the Office of SPI always precedes any
school, county, or city office and state measures always
precede local measures.
This bill:
1)Changes the order of precedence on the ballot for the Office
of SPI by doing the following:
a) Creates the heading STATEWIDE EDUCATION and places it
just below candidates or nominees to the Assembly.
b) Requires the title Superintendent of Public Instruction
be listed immediately underneath the heading STATEWIDE
EDUCATION.
2)Makes other technical changes.
Background
Ballot content and form. Existing law requires a ballot to
comply with a variety of laws that dictate its form and content.
For example, a ballot is required to contain the title of each
office, the names of all qualified candidates, as specified,
ballot designations, as specified, titles and summaries of
measures submitted to voters, and instructions to voters, among
other things. In addition, existing law requires a ballot to
follow certain formatting requirements, such as the order
offices must appear on the ballot and font size. While existing
law does allow for some flexibility in ballot format, such as
allowing a county elections official to make ballot formatting
changes to accommodate the limitations of a voting system or
vote tabulating device, as specified, most requirements are
fairly specific.
As described above, existing law requires the Office of SPI to
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be listed under the heading SCHOOL, which is listed after
candidates for President and Vice President, candidates for
statewide offices (such as Governor, Lieutenant Governor,
Secretary of State, etc.), candidates for United States Senator
and Representative, candidates for state Senate and Assembly,
candidates for county central committees, and finally judicial
candidates. As a result, the Office of SPI is found further
down the ballot usually on the second page.
Comments
1)According to the author, the SPI is the only statewide elected
officer that does not appear at the top of the ballot. AB 562
makes a technical change to instead require the SPI to be
listed under the heading, "STATEWIDE EDUCATION," alongside
other statewide elected officers in order to ensure that
voters have the opportunity to select their candidate.
2)Ballot placement. Many studies discuss the phenomenon of
"voter fatigue" or "ballot drop-off" in which the number of
votes cast per office drops consistently as a voter moves down
the ballot. For instance, the number of votes cast for
President is almost always much greater than the number of
votes cast for many candidates located lower on the ballot for
other offices (such as state legislators, judicial, county
supervisors, city councilors, etc.). Other studies discuss
the advantage of ballot placement content and contend that
there is an advantage to being listed first on the ballot and
that offices in the middle and the bottom of the ballot tend
to receive less attention. According to a Sacramento Bee
editorial provided by the author's office, approximately 6.7
million ballots were cast in the November 4, 2014 General
Election and only 5.4 million of them included a vote for
either of the two candidates running for the Office of SPI.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:NoLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified6/16/15)
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California Association of Clerks and Election Officials
OPPOSITION: (Verified6/16/15)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 74-0, 5/22/15
AYES: Achadjian, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla,
Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau,
Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly,
Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina
Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez,
Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden,
Irwin, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, Patterson, Perea, Quirk, Rendon,
Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark
Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Alejo, Jones, O'Donnell, Olsen, Waldron,
Weber
Prepared by:Frances Tibon Estoista / E. & C.A. / (916) 651-4106
6/18/15 12:00:19
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