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  







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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  








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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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