BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2071|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2071
Author: Harper (R), et al.
Amended: 6/30/16 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE ELECTIONS & C.A. COMMITTEE: 5-0, 6/21/16
AYES: Allen, Anderson, Hancock, Hertzberg, Liu
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 77-0, 4/28/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Vote by mail ballots
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill defines the term "bona fide private mail
delivery company" for the purposes of a vote by mail (VBM)
ballot received after election day, as specified.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Provides that a VBM ballot is timely cast if it is received by
the voter's elections official via the United States Postal
Service (USPS) or a bona fide private mail delivery company no
later than three days after election day and either of the
following is satisfied:
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a) The ballot is postmarked or is time stamped or date
stamped by a bona fide private mail delivery company on or
before election day; or,
b) If the ballot has no postmark, a postmark with no date,
or an illegible postmark, the VBM ballot identification
envelope is date stamped by the elections official upon
receipt of the VBM ballot from the USPS or a bona fide
private mail delivery company, and is signed and dated by
the voter on or before election day.
2)Requires a VBM ballot identification envelope to include
specified information, including the following:
a) A declaration, under penalty of perjury, stating that
the voter resides within the precinct in which he or she is
voting and is the person whose name appears on the
envelope;
b) The signature of the voter; and,
c) The date of signing.
3)Permits a VBM voter who is unable to return his or her ballot
to designate his or her spouse, child, parent, grandparent,
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.
4)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
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prohibition does not apply to a candidate or a candidate's
spouse.
This bill defines a "bona fide private mail delivery company" as
a courier service that is in the regular business of accepting a
mail item, package, or parcel for the purpose of delivery to a
person or entity whose address is specified on the item.
Background
"Postmark Plus Three" and SB 29. In 2014, the Legislature
approved and the Governor signed SB 29 (Correa, Chapter 618,
Statutes of 2014), which allowed VBM ballots to be counted if
they were cast by election day and received by the elections
official by mail no later than three days after the election.
Specifically, SB 29 provides that any VBM ballot is timely cast
if it is received by the voter's elections official via the USPS
or a bona fide delivery company no later than three days after
election day, as specified. Prior to the enactment of SB 29,
VBM ballots in California could be counted only if they were
received by the elections official by election day.
SB 29 was introduced in response to the fact that an increasing
number of VBM ballots that were returned to elections officials
were arriving too late to be counted. Furthermore, given a
number of recently enacted and planned USPS facility closures,
there was a fear that the number of ballots arriving too late to
be counted would continue to rise. According to a September
2014 report by the California Civic Engagement Project at the
University of California at Davis Center for Regional Change,
nearly 69,000 VBM ballots that were received by county election
offices in California for the November 2012 General Election
were rejected during ballot processing, with 47.8 percent of
uncounted ballots being rejected because they arrived too late.
Arriving late was the most common reason why a VBM ballot was
rejected.
Comments
1)According to the author, AB 2071 will protect the integrity of
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California's election system by providing that only legitimate
courier services that are in regular business or delivering
parcels may handle and deliver VBM ballots on behalf of voters
after election day. This includes well-known services such as
DHL, FedEx, and UPS. As such, it will ensure that only
legitimate votes are counted, and that no California voter is
disenfranchised by the counting of ballots that have been
illegally harvested or tampered with in the days following an
election. AB 2071 seeks to define a "bona fide private mail
delivery company." This bill defines it as a courier service
that is in the regular business of accepting a mail item,
package, or parcel for the purpose of delivery to a person or
entity whose address is specified on the item.
Related/Prior Legislation
AB 1921 (Gonzalez, 2016) permits a VBM voter who is unable to
return his or her ballot to designate any person to return the
ballot, as specified.
AB 1271 (Grove of 2015) 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. AB 1271 failed passage in the
Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee.
SB 29 (Correa, Chapter 618, Statutes of 2014) provided that a
VBM ballot is timely cast if it is received by the voter's
elections official via the USPS or a bona fide private mail
delivery company no later than three days after election day, as
specified.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:NoLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified7/18/16)
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
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OPPOSITION: (Verified7/18/16)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 77-0, 4/28/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke,
Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley,
Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines,
Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson,
Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger
Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey,
Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mayes, McCarty,
Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell,
Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Daly, Mathis, Olsen
Prepared by:Darren Chesin / E. & C.A. / (916) 651-4106
7/29/16 10:43:30
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