BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1504
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Date of Hearing: May 13, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, Chair
AB 1504
(Alejo) - As Amended April 20, 2015
SUBJECT: Elections: all-mailed ballot elections: pilot project.
SUMMARY: Authorizes Monterey and Sacramento counties to
participate in an ongoing pilot project that allows certain
elections to be conducted entirely by mailed ballot, and extends
that pilot project by two years. Specifically, this bill:
1)Allows Monterey and Sacramento counties to join a pilot
program currently underway in San Mateo and Yolo counties,
under which the participating counties are permitted to
conduct all-mailed ballot elections on up to three different
dates, subject to certain conditions and reporting
requirements.
2)Extends the end of the pilot project from January 1, 2018 to
January 1, 2020.
3)Makes corresponding and technical changes.
EXISTING LAW:
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1)Allows elections held on no more than three different dates in
San Mateo and Yolo counties to be conducted wholly by mail, as
part of a pilot project lasting through January 1, 2018,
subject to the following conditions:
a) The governing body of the city, county, or district, by
resolution, authorizes the all-mailed ballot election and
notifies the Secretary of State (SOS) of its intent to
conduct an all-mailed ballot election at least 88 days
prior to the date of the election;
b) The election does not occur on the same date as a
statewide primary or general election or any other election
conducted in an overlapping jurisdiction that is not
consolidated and conducted as an all-mailed ballot
election, and is not a special election to fill a vacancy
in a state office, the Legislature, or Congress;
c) At least one ballot dropoff location is provided in each
city within the jurisdiction or ballot dropoff locations
are fixed in a manner so that the number of residents for
each ballot dropoff location does not exceed 100,000 on the
88th day prior to the election, whichever results in more
dropoff locations. Requires dropoff locations to be open
during business hours to receive voted ballots beginning 28
days before the date of the election and until 8 p.m. on
the day of the election;
d) At least one polling place is provided per city where
voters can request a ballot between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. on
the day of the election if they need a replacement ballot;
e) The elections official delivers to each voter all
supplies necessary for the use and return of the mail
ballot, including an envelope for the return of the voted
mail ballot with postage prepaid;
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f) The elections official posts on the Web site of the
county elections office and delivers to each voter, with
either the sample ballot or with the voter's ballot, a list
of the ballot dropoff locations and polling places
provided; and,
g) The polling places provided are at accessible locations
and are equipped with voting units or systems that are
accessible to individuals with disabilities.
2)Requires, if San Mateo or Yolo County conducts an all-mailed
ballot election pursuant to the pilot project described above,
that the county report to the Legislature and to the SOS
regarding the success of the election. Requires the report to
include, but not be limited to, statistics on the cost to
conduct the election; the turnout of different populations,
including, but not limited to, the population categories of
race, ethnicity, age, gender, disability, permanent vote by
mail (VBM) status, and political party affiliation, to the
extent possible; the number of ballots that were not counted
and the reasons why they were rejected; voter fraud; and, any
other problems that became known to the county during the
election or canvass. Requires the report, whenever possible,
to compare the success of the all-mailed ballot election to
similar elections not conducted wholly by mail in the same
jurisdiction. Requires the report to be submitted to the
Legislature within six months after the date of an all-mailed
ballot election or prior to the date of any other all-mailed
ballot election conducted pursuant to the pilot project,
whichever is sooner.
3)Permits an election to be conducted wholly by mail if the
governing body authorizes the use of mailed ballots for the
election, the election occurs on an established mailed ballot
election date, and the election is one of the following:
a) An election in which no more than 1,000 registered
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voters are eligible to participate;
b) An election in a city, county, or district with 5,000 or
fewer registered voters that is restricted to the
imposition of special taxes, expenditure limitation
overrides, or both;
c) An election on the issuance of a general obligation
water bond;
d) An election in one of four specifically enumerated water
districts; or,
e) An election or assessment ballot proceeding required or
authorized by the state constitution under Proposition 218.
4)Authorizes a city with a population of 100,000 or less or a
school district to conduct any special election held to fill a
vacancy as an all-mailed ballot election.
5)Authorizes a district to conduct any election as an all-mailed
ballot election on any date other than an established election
date.
FISCAL EFFECT: None. This bill is keyed non-fiscal by the
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose of the Bill: According to the author:
This bill seeks to modestly expand the current pilot
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program allowing for all mail elections by adding
Monterey County and Sacramento County to the list of
participating counties and extending the sunset by 2
years. This will allow for additional information to
be collected about the impact of all mail elections,
particularly in more rural counties where polling
places tend to be more spread out and difficult to
access and urban counties where voters face different
challenges. Currently, only one urban county (San
Mateo County) and one rural county (Yolo County) are
allow[ed] to participate under the existing pilot
program which is scheduled to sunset in 2018.
In recent years, the percentage of California voters
who cast mail-in ballots has increased dramatically,
and it is especially significant in special elections.
In recent elections, more than 80% of voters cast
their ballots by mail in some cases. Given the record
low 18.3% voter turnout in that recent 2014 statewide
primary election, the lowest since 1946, California is
facing a democracy crisis when it comes to the civic
participation of [its] voters and all mail elections
offer an opportunity to turn that around.
University of California San Diego research indicates
that when special elections are conducted by mail,
turnout levels increase by close to eight percentage
points in California. An increase of this magnitude
could mean nearly doubling turnout rates in some
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jurisdictions. In addition, the policy has the
potential to save taxpayer dollars because mail-ballot
elections typically cost significantly less than
traditional polling place elections which includes
staffing expenses.
In the early 1990s, California embarked on an all-mail
special election pilot project. That particular
project was conducted in Stanislaus County, and the
results indicated increase in turnout from 7% below
the statewide average to 7% above. In addition, the
county spent half as much money administering the
election as it did during traditional polling place
elections. However, the pilot was not extended, nor
was the policy adopted statewide.
Nearly two decades later, in 2011, the Legislature
authorized another pilot project in a rural county,
again with the intention of examining the turnout
effects of vote-by-mail elections. The project only
applied to one rural county, and the number of mail-in
elections dates is capped at three. Prior elections
were conducted on one out of the three total
permissible election dates, and a subsequent election
report demonstrated no significant increase or
decrease in turnout, including when turnout levels
were broken down by ethnicity. The report did,
however, indicate a total cost-savings of about 43%.
In the end, it called for more data on all-mail
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elections in California. In addition, more data is
also needed to gauge the impact of SB 29 (Correa)
which allows [VBM] ballots to be accepted and counted
even if they arrive at a county election headquarters
up to three days after Election Day.
Last year the Legislature added San Mateo County to
the pilot program, but the program should be expanded
even more to gather more data. In doing so, more
counties should be included to add to the data
collected from the rural and urban counties of Yolo
and San Mateo that are already part of the program.
Monterey County and Sacramento County are great
candidates as rural and urban counties, respectively.
Monterey County even had temporary authorization
conduct all-mail elections for a two-year period from
2002 to 2003, so there is already experience and
infrastructure for all-mail elections. By adding
Monterey County and Sacramento County to the current
pilot, AB 1504 proposes a minor expansion of the
program.
2)Vote By Mail and Permanent Vote By Mail Voting: Under state
law, any voter can request a VBM ballot for any election, and
any voter can become a permanent VBM voter. Permanent VBM
voters automatically receive a ballot in the mail for every
election, without the need to re-apply for a VBM ballot. As
such, any voter who prefers to receive a ballot by mail has
the ability to do so under existing law.
Among the arguments that supporters of all-mailed ballot
elections frequently make in support of such elections is that
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all-mailed ballot elections are more convenient for voters.
However, it is not clear whether this is the case. Any voter
who finds it more convenient to vote by mail has the option to
do so under existing law, and voters who want to vote by mail
at every election can sign up for permanent VBM status. Some
voters, due to physical disability or language issues, may
prefer to vote at the polls in order to take advantage of
access or help provided by electronic voting machines or
bilingual poll workers.
3)Prior All-Mailed Ballot Election Pilot Project in Monterey
County: AB 319 (Salinas), Chapter 385, Statutes of 2001,
allowed Monterey County to conduct any election within the
county as an all-mailed ballot election, provided that the
election did not contain a state or federal office. AB 319
specified that it was to serve as a pilot project for mailed
ballot elections, and required Monterey County to report to
the Legislature and the SOS regarding the success of the
election, including, but not limited to, any statistics on the
increase of voter fraud. The pilot project ended on December
31, 2005. AB 591 (Salinas) of 2005 sought to extend the pilot
project until December 31, 2008, but that bill failed after
never being heard in the Senate Elections, Reapportionment,
and Constitutional Amendments Committee.
Unfortunately, the report filed by Monterey County as part of
the pilot project was cursory, and less than one page long,
and therefore lacked information necessary to evaluate the
pilot project. Although the report concluded that the mailed
ballot elections conducted under the pilot project had
increased turnout, decreased costs, and did not result in
voter fraud, the report lacked the detail necessary to assess
these claims. Furthermore, the report failed to disclose an
incident in which approximately 200 registered voters in the
Castroville area of the County did not receive a ballot until
after election day for one of the elections held under the
pilot project.
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Given that Monterey County already participated in a pilot
project for all-mailed ballot elections, and given the
less-than-thorough report that was provided to the Legislature
at the conclusion of that pilot project, the committee may
wish to consider whether Monterey County is a suitable
jurisdiction for conducting further study on the issue of
all-mailed ballot elections.
4)San Mateo and Yolo County Pilot Project: In 2011, the
Legislature approved and the Governor signed AB 413 (Yamada),
Chapter 187, Statutes of 2011, which created a pilot program
allowing Yolo County to conduct local elections on not more
than three dates as all-mailed ballot elections. AB 413 was
intended to serve as a pilot project to evaluate the
desirability of further expanding the circumstances under
which elections are permitted to be conducted as all-mailed
ballot elections. Yolo County conducted all-mailed ballot
elections in March 2013 in the City of Davis and the
Washington Unified School District as permitted by AB 413, and
submitted its report on those elections in December 2013.
The report prepared in connection with the first two elections
conducted in Yolo County under the pilot project found that
turnout at the all-mailed ballot elections conducted as part
of the pilot project was not significantly different than
similar polling place elections held in the two jurisdictions
in prior years. The study also found that turnout rates
broken down by age, ethnic background, party preference, and
permanent VBM status was consistent and similar between the
polling place and the all-mailed ballot elections. The study
found that data provided on the cost to conduct all-mailed
ballot elections was inconclusive in determining whether there
are significant savings to moving to all-mailed ballot
elections. However, the study also cautioned that Davis-one
of the jurisdictions in which the pilot was conducted-"is a
relatively affluent, homogenous community with a higher level
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of educational achievement than most other areas of the state"
and so the results "are not necessarily applicable to other,
dissimilar communities." The report also noted that the
effects of all-mailed ballot elections on turnout would not
necessarily be similar in general elections. Yolo County is
permitted to conduct local elections as all-mailed ballot
elections on two additional dates before the conclusion of the
pilot project.
Last year, the Legislature approved and the Governor signed AB
2028 (Mullin), Chapter 209, Statutes of 2014, which allowed
San Mateo County to join Yolo County in participating in the
ongoing pilot project. Part of the author's rationale for
introducing AB 2028 was to expand the pilot program to gather
more data, and to get information from an urban county "to
contrast the rural county [Yolo] that is already part of the
program." San Mateo County has not yet conducted an election
as part of the all-mailed ballot pilot program that was
expanded by AB 2028. (San Mateo County conducted an
all-mailed ballot election on May 5, 2015, for a parcel tax
measure in the San Carlos School District, but that election
was conducted as an all-mailed ballot election pursuant to
other provisions of existing law, and not as part of the pilot
project authorized by AB 2028.)
Given the fact that the all-mail ballot election pilot project
was only recently expanded to include an additional county,
and given the fact that only one set of elections have been
held under the pilot project, the committee may wish to
consider whether it is warranted to further expand the
all-mail ballot election pilot program and to extend the end
of that pilot program before receiving additional information
from those jurisdictions that already are permitted to
participate in the pilot project.
5)Arguments in Support: In support of this bill, the Urban
Counties Caucus writes:
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Under existing law, the counties of San Mateo and Yolo
are allowed to conduct certain special elections to
fill a vacancy by mail. AB 1504 would allow Monterey
and Sacramento counties to be included in this pilot
project.
In recent years, counties have conducted numerous
special elections to fill a vacancy in Congress, State
Senate, and Assembly which is very costly and results
in low voter turnout. In 2013, counties conducted
eight special elections due to a vacancy in the State
Assembly and State Senate. In Los Angeles County alone
the cost to conduct special elections in 2013 was
approximately $6.2 million. These elections require
counties to have polling places and staff throughout
the county open for 12 hours, when often only a few
voters show up to the polls. In California, the
permanent absentee rolls continue to grow and many
voters choose to vote by mail.
This bill would expand the pilot project to Monterey
and Sacramento counties, which would provide more data
and information to the Legislature regarding this
proposed change in election procedures. Conducting
elections by all-mail ballot would provide a
significant cost savings as well as be more convenient
for voters.
6)Related Legislation: AB 547 (Gonzalez), which is also being
heard in this committee today, expands a previously authorized
mailed ballot election pilot project in San Diego County to
allow certain local elections held in San Diego County to be
conducted pursuant to the provisions of that project, among
other provisions.
7)Previous Legislation: AB 1873 (Gonzalez and Mullin), Chapter
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598, Statutes of 2014, allows special elections in San Diego
County to fill vacancies in the Legislature and Congress, to
be conducted by mailed ballot until 2020, subject to certain
conditions.
SB 304 (Kehoe) of 2011 would have authorized elections in San
Diego County to be conducted wholly by mail until January 1,
2016, if specified conditions were satisfied. SB 304 was
never heard in committee.
SB 1102 (Liu) of 2010 would have permitted a special primary or
run-off election to fill a legislative or congressional
vacancy to be conducted wholly by mail provided that the board
of supervisors of each county within the affected jurisdiction
authorized the all-mail ballot election. SB 1102 was never
brought up for vote on the Senate Floor.
AB 1681 (Yamada) of 2010 was similar to AB 413. AB 1681 was
vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger, who expressed concern that
"with limited options to vote in-person citizens-especially
poor, elderly, and disabled voters-would not have sufficient
opportunity to vote."
AB 1228 (Yamada) of 2009 was similar to AB 1681, except that AB
1228 would have allowed both Yolo and Santa Clara Counties to
participate in the all-mail ballot pilot project. AB 1228 was
vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger for the same reasons stated
in his veto message of AB 1681 above.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
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Sacramento County Board of Supervisors
Urban Counties Caucus
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by:Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094