BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 1970 (Low) - Elections: vote by mail and provisional ballots
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|Version: February 16, 2016 |Policy Vote: E. & C.A. 4 - 1 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: August 1, 2016 |Consultant: Robert Ingenito |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: AB 1970 would require the Secretary of State (SOS) to
promulgate regulations to establish guidelines for county
elections officials relating to the processing of vote by mail
(VBM) and provisional ballots.
Fiscal
Impact: SOS indicates that it would incur a one-time cost of
$55,000 (General Fund) to promulgate the regulations.
Background: Current law requires a county elections official, upon
receiving a VBM ballot or a provisional ballot, to compare the
signature on the identification envelope with the signature
appearing in the voter's registration record. Specifically,
existing law requires a county elections official to compare the
signatures on the envelope with either the signature appearing
AB 1970 (Low) Page 1 of
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on the voter's affidavit of registration or any previous
affidavit of registration of the voter, or the signature
appearing on a form issued by an elections official that
contains the voter's signature and that is part of the voter's
registration record. If the signatures compare, the county
elections official is required to deposit the ballot, still in
the identification envelope, in a ballot container in his or her
office. If the signatures do not compare, existing law requires
the envelope to remain unopened and the ballot not be counted.
Due to an increase in VBM and provisional ballots, and to make
the verification process more efficient, many county elections
officials use signature verification technology to compare and
verify signatures on ballot identification envelopes. Existing
law, however, prohibits elections officials, 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.
Proposed Law:
This bill would require SOS promulgate regulations establishing
guidelines for county elections officials relating to the
processing of VBM, and provisional ballots.
Staff
Comments: The number of voters choosing to vote by mail has
significantly increased in recent elections. In 2012, for the
first time in a statewide general election, over 50 percent of
voters cast their votes using a VBM ballot. This has
concurrently resulted in an increase in the number of VBM
ballots that go uncounted, with one of the principal reasons
being a mismatch between the signature on the voter's VBM ballot
identification envelop and the voter's affidavit of
registration.
The nonpartisan California Voter Foundation conducted a three
county (Sacramento, Orange, and Santa Cruz) study, focusing on
each county's VBM process. Among its findings, the study points
out that one of the reasons why counties may have varying
signature mismatch rejection rates is because there are very few
uniform standards for signature verification. The study
AB 1970 (Low) Page 2 of
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indicates that current state law is limited regarding what
criteria should be used to compare signatures. Moreover,
according to the study, all three counties have written
signature verification guidelines with slightly difference
processes for handling situations when a voter's signature may
not compare.
In an effort to address this issue, this bill would require SOS
to develop regulations related to the processing of VBM and
provisional ballots.
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