BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2824
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Date of Hearing: May 18, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
AB
2824 (Thurmond) - As Amended May 4, 2016
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable:
Yes
SUMMARY:
This bill requires county elections officials to post specified
semiofficial election information on their counties' websites.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires a county, with the technical capacity to do so, to
post the following information on its website in both
downloadable spreadsheet and Election Markup Language (EML)
formats, or in one of the formats if it does not have the
technical capacity to do both:
AB 2824
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a) A statement of the results showing all the following:
i) The total number of ballots cast;
ii) The number of votes cast at each precinct for each
candidate and for and against each measure;
iii) The number of votes cast for each candidate and for
and against each measure; and,
iv) The number of votes cast in each city, Assembly
district, congressional district, senatorial district,
State Board of Equalization district, and supervisorial
district located in whole or in part in the county, for
each candidate for the offices of presidential elector
and all statewide offices, depending on the offices to be
filled, and on each statewide ballot proposition.
b) Precinct data for vote-by-mail ballots, provisional
ballots, spoiled ballots, and any other data readily
available on the computer system.
2)Requires the above information to be posted at the end of
election night, daily through the first Friday after election
day, and thereafter, weekly on Fridays until the results are
certified in accordance with existing law. If the information
has not changed from a prior posting, the elections official
may instead just post a statement to that effect.
3)Requires a county, if modification to its voting system would
allow the county to comply with the posting requirements
stated above, to propose a modification of its voting system
to the Secretary of State (SOS) for approval by December 31,
AB 2824
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2017.
4)Prohibits the SOS, after December 31, 2017, from certifying
any voting system not capable of (a) complying with (1)(a)
above and (b) enabling data to be transferred from the system
to an external digital medium to allow transfer to a computer
connected to the Internet.
5)Decreases the length of time that a county elections official
must post and maintain the certified statement of the election
results on its website following the election from at least 10
years to at least 22 months.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Information from counties was limited at the time of this
analysis, although indications are that the majority of existing
county voting systems are currently unable to comply with this
bill's reporting requirements. There would thus be significant
one-time state reimbursable costs for technology upgrades,
probably of at least a few hundred thousand dollars, but
possibly much greater. (It is staff's understanding that such
functionality will be incorporated into new voting systems that
counties will be acquiring over time, and that would be required
by this bill for any voting systems approved by the SOS after
December 31, 2007.)
As an example of one county's cost to comply with the bill,
Sacramento County indicates it would have to use a third-party
vendor at a cost of $18,000 annually.
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COMMENTS:
1)Background. Current law requires a county elections official
to conduct a semifinal official canvass by tabulating VBM and
precinct ballots, compiling the results, and transmitting the
semiofficial results to the SOS, for elections for state and
federal office, and for statewide ballot measures, every two
hours following the commencement of vote counting.
Additionally, elections officials prepare a final certified
statement of the results of the election and submit it to the
governing body within 30 days of the election. AB 813
(Melendez), Chapter 112, Statutes of 2013, requires elections
officials to also post certified election results on the
county's website in a downloadable spreadsheet format.
2)Purpose. This bill expands AB 813 by requiring county
elections officials to post election results regularly, and as
specified, beginning on election night. According to the
author's office, "Often on election night and in the first few
weeks thereafter especially in close races, candidates,
initiative stakeholders, and involved citizens need to be able
to analyze and verify the reported numbers from precincts and
counties as much as possible in order to determine what action
is appropriate for them to take, such as to: concede, ask for
a recount, claim victory, etc. These detailed numbers are
[currently] not in a format that lends itself to easy,
efficient analysis, especially for counties with many
precincts.
"Providing this information on a timely basis that is needed
by campaign managers, initiative proponents, and concerned
citizens starting on election night in a format that they can
use to verify reported results and analyze the detail in
various ways that will satisfy them will prevent uncertainty
and will greatly lessen the need and desire to interrupt
AB 2824
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Registrars with inquiries, requests for recounts, and demands
for audits."
3)Opposition. The California Association of Clerks and Elections
Office (CACEO) assert that the bill will delay the canvass and
election certification and result in one-time costs for
technical development and ongoing costs to generate and post
the results. The CACEO states, "?there must be acknowledgment
that counties have varying voting systems which have varying
functionality?" and that "..elections officials require
discretion in managing their elections, which includes the
time and manner in which results are posted."
Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)
319-2081