BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1921|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1921
Author: Gonzalez (D)
Amended: 4/11/16 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE ELECTIONS & C.A. COMMITTEE: 4-1, 6/21/16
AYES: Allen, Hancock, Hertzberg, Liu
NOES: Anderson
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 46-29, 5/2/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Elections: vote by mail ballots
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill permits a vote by mail (VBM) voter 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.
ANALYSIS:
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
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Page 2
before the close of the polls on election day.
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)Prohibits a ballot from being counted if it is not delivered
in compliance with the aforementioned sections.
5)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.
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
election by deceiving and causing him or her to vote for a
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Page 3
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 $10,000, or both.
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,
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 existing 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.
AB 1921
Page 4
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.
Background
Current Practice. Under existing 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, 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.
Existing Penalties. Existing law provides for a variety of
safeguards to protect against voter fraud and abuse, and
specifically 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 $10,000, or both. Moreover, once the ballot is
received by the elections official, existing law requires the
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Page 5
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.
Other States. The laws allowing a voter to designate any person
to drop off his or her mail ballot 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 while Washington State permits any person to return
a voted ballot either by placing it into a drop box or
delivering it to the elections office.
Comments
1) 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.
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
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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 prohibits
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.
Related/Prior Legislation
AB 2071 (Harper, 2016) defines the term "bona fide private mail
delivery company" for the purposes of a VBM ballot received
after Election Day. AB 2071 recently passed out of the Senate
Committee on Elections and Constitutional Amendments.
AB 1271 (Grove, 2016) would have required the disqualification
of VBM ballots that are received after Election Day if those
ballots are delivered by a bona fide private mail delivery
company or if those ballots have no postmark, a postmark with no
date, or an illegible postmark. The bill failed passage in
Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee.
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, 2009), AB 1096 (Umberg, 2005), and SB 462
(Karnette, 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
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law that a person be ill or disabled to request that someone
else submit" a voter's VBM ballot.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:NoLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified6/22/16)
Secretary of State Alex Padilla
American Civil Liberties Union
California Association of Clerks and Election Officials
California Labor Federation
California School Employees Association, AFL-CIO
California Teachers Association
County of San Diego
Disability Rights California
La Cooperative Campesina de California
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California
Service Employees International Union
OPPOSITION: (Verified6/22/16)
Election Integrity Project, Inc.
Hi-Desert Republican Women, Federated
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
Voting Rights Task Force
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 46-29, 5/2/16
AYES: Alejo, Arambula, Atkins, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brown,
Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper,
Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia,
Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gray, Holden, Irwin, Jones-Sawyer,
Levine, Lopez, Low, McCarty, Medina, Mullin, Nazarian,
O'Donnell, Quirk, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Mark Stone,
Thurmond, Ting, Weber, Wood, Rendon
NOES: Achadjian, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Brough, Chang,
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Chávez, Dababneh, Dahle, Gallagher, Gatto, Grove, Hadley,
Harper, Jones, Kim, Lackey, Linder, Maienschein, Mathis,
Mayes, Melendez, Obernolte, Olsen, Patterson, Steinorth,
Wagner, Waldron, Wilk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Beth Gaines, Gordon, Roger Hernández,
Ridley-Thomas, Williams
Prepared by:Frances Tibon Estoista / E. & C.A. / (916) 651-4106
6/24/16 14:33:40
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