BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1921
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Date of Hearing: April 27, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Shirley Weber, Chair
AB 1921
(Gonzalez) - As Amended April 11, 2016
SUBJECT: Elections: vote by mail ballots.
SUMMARY: Permits a vote by mail (VBM) voter to who is unable to
return his or her ballot to designate any person to return the
ballot, as specified. Prohibits a designated person from
receiving any form of compensation based on the number ballots
that person returns, as specified. Specifically, this bill:
1)Deletes provisions of law that allow a VBM voter who is unable
to return his or her ballot to designate his or her spouse,
child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, brother, sister, or a
person residing in the same household as the VBM voter to
return the ballot, and instead permits the VBM voter to
designate any person to return the ballot.
2)Prohibits a person designated to return a VBM ballot from
receiving any form of compensation based on the number of
ballots that the person has returned and prohibits an
individual, group, or organization from providing compensation
on this basis.
3)Defines "compensation" to mean any form of monetary payment,
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goods, services, benefits, promises or offers of employment,
or any other form of consideration offered to another person
in exchange for returning another voter's VBM ballot.
4)Provides that any person in charge of a VBM ballot who
knowingly and willingly engages in criminal acts related to
that ballot as described under current law, including, but not
limited to, fraud, bribery, intimidation, and tampering with
or failing to deliver the ballot in a timely fashion, is
subject to the appropriate punishment pursuant to existing
law.
5)Repeals provisions of law that prohibit a VBM voter's ballot
from being returned by a paid or volunteer worker of a general
purpose committee, controlled committee, independent
expenditure committee, political party, candidate's campaign
committee, or any other group or organization at whose behest
the individual designated to return the ballot is performing a
service.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Requires voting by mail to be available to any registered
voter.
2)Permits a VBM voter who is unable to return his or her ballot
to designate his or her spouse, child, parent, grandparent,
grandchild, brother, sister, or a person residing in the same
household as the VBM voter to return the ballot to the
elections official from whom it came or to a precinct board
before the close of the polls on election day.
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3)Prohibits a VBM ballot from being returned by a paid or
volunteer worker of a general purpose committee, controlled
committee, independent expenditure committee, political party,
candidate's campaign committee, or any other group or
organization at whose behest the individual designated to
return the ballot is performing a service. Provides this
prohibition does not apply to a candidate or a candidate's
spouse.
4)Requires an elections official to establish procedures to
ensure the secrecy of a VBM ballot returned to a precinct
polling place and the security, confidentiality, and integrity
of any related personal information collected, stored, or
otherwise used.
5)Prohibits a ballot from being counted if it is not delivered
in compliance with the aforementioned sections.
6)Requires an elections official to establish procedures to
track and confirm the receipt of voted VBM ballots and to make
this information available by means of online access using the
county's elections division Internet Web site. Requires a
county elections official that does not have an elections
division Internet Web site to establish a toll-free telephone
number that may be used to confirm the date a voted VBM ballot
was received.
7)Provides that any person who votes more than once, attempts to
vote more than once, or impersonates or attempts to
impersonate a voter at an election is guilty of a crime
punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for 16 months
or two or three years, or in county jail not exceeding one
year.
8)Provides that every person who defrauds any voter at any
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election by deceiving and causing him or her to vote for a
different person for any office than he or she intended or
desired to vote for is guilty of a felony punishable by
imprisonment in the state prison for 16 months or two or three
years.
9)Provides that any person having charge of a completed VBM
ballot who willfully interferes or causes interference with
its return to the local elections official having jurisdiction
over the election is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by
imprisonment in a county jail, a fine of ten thousand dollars
($10,000), or both.
FISCAL EFFECT: None. This bill is keyed non-fiscal by the
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose of the Bill: According to the author:
AB 1921 will allow voters to designate a person of
their own choosing to return a completed mail ballot
to the proper drop-off location or post office.
Currently in code, voters are only allowed to
designate a person from the arbitrary list of "spouse,
child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, brother,
sister, or a person residing in the same household as
the vote by mail voter" to return a mail ballot. While
perhaps a well-meaning attempt at defining those who
would be trusted by the voter, these restrictions
simply provide yet another obstacle for individuals
attempting to vote, without any evidence based
justification against voter fraud.
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More and more voters in California are choosing to
vote by mail. For instance, in the 2014 June primary
election, data from the Secretary of State shows that
68% of voters turned in a mail ballot. In addition to
this preference by individual voters, counties in
California are increasingly looking to conduct all
mail ballot elections with the hopes of improving
turnout while simultaneously lowering costs. San
Diego, Yolo, San Mateo, Sacramento, and Monterey
County all currently have pilot programs to conduct
certain elections by mail. As these trends continue,
it is important that we make sure the processes we
have in place for mail ballots are easy for voters to
follow, encourage participation, and make sense for
today's California.
Texas, Oregon, Arizona, Washington, Colorado, and
Florida all allow any person designated by those
voters to turn in completed mail ballots. This allows
for the friend who happens to be driving by the ballot
drop-off location, or the co-worker who is heading to
the polls on election day, to assist in making sure
each and every vote counts.
In order to further protect every vote, this bill
would prohibit individual canvassers or volunteers
from engaging in any sort of paid-per ballot or
performance-based compensation schemes based on the
number of ballots deposited or collected by that
person.
2)Current Practice: Under current law, a person that is unable
to return his or her VBM ballot is permitted to designate his
or her spouse, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild,
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sibling, or a person residing in the same household as the VBM
voter to return the voter's VBM ballot to the elections
official from whom it came or to the precinct board at a
polling place within the jurisdiction. Additionally, existing
law prohibits a VBM ballot from being returned by a paid or
volunteer worker of a general purpose committee, controlled
committee, independent expenditure committee, political party,
candidate's campaign committee, or any other group or
organization at whose behest the individual designated to
return the ballot is performing a service and provides this
prohibition does not apply to a candidate or a candidate's
spouse. This bill makes changes to this practice. First,
this bill deletes provisions of law that require a designated
person to be a spouse, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild,
sibling, or a person residing in the same household as the VBM
voter, and instead permits the designated person to be any
person. Second, this bill deletes the prohibition provisions
described above and provides that any person in charge of a
VBM ballot who knowingly and willingly engages in criminal
acts related to the VBM ballot as described under current law,
including, but not limited to, fraud, bribery, intimidation,
and tampering with or failing to deliver the ballot in a
timely fashion, is subject to the appropriate punishment
pursuant to existing law. Finally, this bill prohibits a
person designated to return a VBM ballot from receiving any
form of compensation, as defined, based on the number of
ballots that the person has returned and prohibits an
individual, group, or organization from providing compensation
on this basis. This bill defines compensation to mean any
form of monetary payment, goods, services, benefits, promises
or offers of employment, or any other form of consideration
offered to another person in exchange for returning another
voter's VBM ballot.
The practical effect of this bill is that a VBM voter may
designate any person such as a co-worker, friend, neighbor, or
even a campaign worker to drop off his or her VBM ballot.
3)Existing Penalties: Current law provides for a variety of
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safeguards in law to protect against voter fraud and abuse.
Existing law makes it a felony for any person who defrauds any
voter at any election by deceiving and causing him or her to
vote for a different person for any office than the candidate
for whom he or she intended or desired to vote. Additionally,
any person having charge of a completed VBM ballot who
willfully interferes or causes interference with its return to
the local elections official having jurisdiction over the
election is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment
in the county jail, a fine of ten thousand dollars ($10,000),
or both. Moreover, once the ballot is received by the
elections official, California law requires the elections
officials to compare the signature on a VBM ballot envelope
with the signature on that voter's affidavit of registration
before the VBM ballot may be counted. If those signatures do
not match, the ballot will not be counted.
Furthermore, the Legislature has taken steps to address the
potential for fraud in connection with VBM ballots. For
example, many elders in state-licensed or state-subsidized
facilities or programs have physical and cognitive impairments
or conditions that may limit their ability to independently
cast a vote. As a result, many elders choose to vote via VBM
ballot. As a result of the high use of VBM ballots in this
population, some questions and concerns have arisen regarding
the influence elders are receiving from caregivers in the
receipt, completion, and return of their ballots. In response
to those concerns, the Legislature approved and the Governor
signed AB 547 (Gatto), Chapter 260, Statutes of 2011, which
makes it a misdemeanor for a person who is providing care or
direct supervision to an elder in a state-licensed or
state-subsidized facility or program to coerce or deceive the
elder into voting for or against a candidate or measure
contrary to the elder's intent or in the absence of any intent
of the elder to cast a vote for or against that candidate or
measure.
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This bill adds to these penalties and specifically prohibits a
person designated to return a VBM ballot from receiving any
form of compensation based on the number of ballots that the
person has returned and prohibits an individual, group, or
organization from providing compensation on this basis. This
bill defines "compensation" to mean any form of monetary
payment, goods, services, benefits, promises or offers of
employment, or any other form of consideration offered to
another person in exchange for returning another voter's VBM
ballot.
4)Other States: As mentioned in the author's statement, other
states allow a voter to designate any person to drop off his
or her mail ballot. The laws, however, vary from state to
state. For example, Colorado permits a person to drop off up
to 10 mail ballots, as specified. Oregon state law permits a
person who returns a ballot for an elector to return the
ballot no later than two days after receiving the ballot in
accordance with existing law. Moreover, Texas state law
permits a voter who is eligible to vote by mail to designate
any person to drop off his or her ballot, however, requires
the designated person to put his or her name and address on
the carrier envelope as a witness or assistant, as specified.
The Texas Secretary of State's web site also recommends a VBM
voter to decline assistance from a political organization and
to instead select a trusted relative or friend to return the
mail ballot.
5)Vote by Mail Data: Statistics show that voters are choosing
to cast a VBM ballot more and more each election. For
instance, according to the Secretary of State's office, in the
November 2004 general election approximately 32 percent of
voters cast a VBM ballot. In the November 2014 general
election over 60 percent of voters cast a VBM ballot.
6)Arguments in Support: In support, Disability Rights
California writes:
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AB 1921 will allow voters to designate a person of
their own choosing to return a completed mail ballot
to the proper drop-off location or post office. This
proposal also allows for a mail ballot to be returned
by an individual belonging to a group or organization
at whose behest the voter designated them to return a
ballot to any of the aforementioned locations, and
will prohibit individual canvassers or volunteers from
engaging in any sort of paid-per ballot or
performance-based compensation schemes based on the
number of ballots deposited or collected by that
person.
According to the [SOS's] office, in the November 2014
General election only about half of [VBM] ballots were
returned.
California is among the few states that explicitly
prohibit volunteers or paid canvassers from collecting
ballots from voters. State like Arizona, Oregon and
Washington allow anyone to return completed ballots on
behalf of a voter.
People with disabilities who have difficulty returning
a mail ballot will now have more options for
identifying a person to return the ballot to the post
office or other drop-off locations.
7)Arguments in Opposition: In opposition, the Howard Jarvis
Taxpayers Association writes:
AB 1921 promotes vote harvesting and greatly increases
the likelihood for fraud in our elections process.
This is especially true now that current law allows
for absentee ballots without a postmark to be turned
in up to three days after the election. It would not
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be an implausible scenario for a close election to be
reversed through the filling out of absentee ballots
after Election Day.
Obviously we are not in favor of discouraging or
disenfranchising disabled people from being able to
vote. In fact, it was for this group of people that
the [VBM] system was created in the first place. But
as it stands today an individual can drop their ballot
in the mail on Election Day and have it count. This
process does not need to be made any easier than that.
8)Previous Legislation: AB 2080 (Gordon), Chapter 508, Statutes
of 2012, deleted provisions of law that required a voter to be
ill or disabled in order to have a family member or a person
in the same household return a VBM ballot for that voter.
AB 1271 (Krekorian) of 2009, AB 1096 (Umberg) of 2005, and SB
462 (Karnette) of 2001, all proposed to delete the requirement
that a voter must be ill or disabled in order to designate
another person to return that voter's VBM ballot, among other
provisions. AB 1271 and AB 1096 were vetoed by Governor
Schwarzenegger, who argued that the bills could lead to abuse
of the system. SB 462 was vetoed by Governor Davis, who
stated that it was "important to maintain the standard under
current law that a person be ill or disabled to request that
someone else submit" a voter's VBM ballot.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
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American Civil Liberties Union of California
California Association of Clerks and Election Officials
California Labor Federation
California School Employees Association
California State Council of the Service Employees International
Union
California Teachers Association
Cooperativa Campesina de California
Disability Rights California
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California
Opposition
Election Integrity Project, Inc.
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Hi-Desert Republican Women, Federated
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
72 Individuals
Analysis Prepared by:Nichole Becker / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094