BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 2071 Page 1 CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS AB 2071 (Harper) As Amended June 30, 2016 Majority vote -------------------------------------------------------------------- |ASSEMBLY: |77-0 |(April 28, |SENATE: | 37-0 |(August 11, | | | |2016) | | |2016) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | -------------------------------------------------------------------- Original Committee Reference: E. & R. SUMMARY: 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. Specifically, this bill defines a "bona fide private mail delivery company" to mean 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. The Senate amendments delete requirements that a company must be for profit and must deliver items at a cost in order to be considered a "bona fide private mail delivery company" and make technical changes to the bill. EXISTING LAW 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 AB 2071 Page 2 company no later than three days after election day, as specified. FISCAL EFFECT: None. This bill is keyed non-fiscal by the Legislative Counsel. COMMENTS: According to the author, "AB 2071 will protect the integrity of California's election system by providing that only legitimate courier services that are in the regular business of 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 [United Parcel Service] 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." 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. 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 (CCEP) 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% of uncounted ballots being rejected because they arrived too late. Arriving late was the number one reason why a VBM ballot was rejected. Analysis Prepared by: Nichole Becker / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094 FN: AB 2071 Page 3 0003609