BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2911|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2911
Author: Committee on Elections and Redistricting
Amended: 8/18/16 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE ELECTIONS & C.A. COMMITTEE: 5-0, 6/8/16
AYES: Allen, Anderson, Hancock, Hertzberg, Liu
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 5/5/16 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: Voting: voter information guides
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill is a committee omnibus bill that
standardizes terms in the Elections Code used to refer to the
county and state voter information guides and moves the date in
which a voting system had to be submitted for federal
qualification from January 1, 2014 to April 28, 2016.
Senate Floor Amendments of 8/18/16 delete a September 1, 2013
deadline in which a vendor or county submitted a voting system
for federal qualification; extend the date in which a voting
system had to be submitted for federal qualification from
January 1, 2015, to April 28, 2016; and add double-jointing
language to avoid chaptering out issues with the following
bills: AB 2010 (Ridley-Thomas), AB 2089 (Quirk), and AB 2265
(Stone).
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
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1)Requires the Secretary of State (SOS) to mail to all
households in which voters are registered a state voter
information guide, as specified.
2)Requires the guide to contain information, including, but not
limited to, a complete copy of each state measure, arguments
and rebuttals for and against each state measure, and an
analysis of each state measure.
3)Requires county elections officials to mail a county voter
information guide to each voter in the jurisdiction, as
specified.
4)Requires the county voter information guide to contain, among
other things, a copy of the official ballot (sample ballot), a
notice of the polling place, a complete copy of each local
measure, and an analysis of each measure.
5)Requires a voting system not be used unless it has been
certified or conditionally approved by the SOS prior to any
election at which it is to be used and requires a voting
system that has been tested and approved for use in all
elections by the SOS before January 1, 2014, be deemed
certified or conditionally approved by the SOS and may be used
in an election subject to any conditions placed on the use of
the voting system by the SOS before January 1, 2014, including
conditions imposed in the reapproval documents issued by the
SOS in 2007 and 2008 following the Top-to-Bottom Review, and
its subsequent revisions. The voting systems shall remain
subject to review and decertification by the SOS at any time
as specified.
6)Authorizes a vendor or county that has submitted a voting
system for federal qualification before September 1, 2013,
upon obtaining federal qualification before January 1, 2015,
to request approval of the voting system from the SOS based on
the examination and review requirements in place before
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January 1, 2014.
7)Prohibits a jurisdiction from purchasing or contracting for a
voting system unless it has been certified or conditionally
approved by the SOS.
This bill:
1) Deletes the terms "sample ballot," "ballot pamphlet,"
"voter's pamphlet," "voter pamphlet," "state ballot
pamphlet," and "statewide voter pamphlet," and replaces them
with "state voter information guide" or "county voter
information guide," as appropriate.
2) Deletes the September 1, 2013 deadline in which a vendor or
county submitted a voting system for federal qualification.
3) Extends the deadline in which a voting system is required to
have obtained federal qualification from January 1, 2015, to
on or before April 28, 2016.
4) Includes double-jointing language to avoid a chaptering out
issue with AB 2010 (Ridley-Thomas), AB 2089 (Quirk), and AB
2265 (Stone).
Background
County and State Voter Information Guides. Existing law
requires the SOS to mail to all households in which voters are
registered a state voter information guide, as specified, and
also requires the guide to contain information, including, but
not limited to, a complete copy of each state measure, arguments
and rebuttals for and against each state measure, and an
analysis of each state measure. Existing law additionally
requires county elections officials to mail a county voter
information guide to each voter in the jurisdiction, as
specified, and also requires the county voter information guide
to contain, among other things, a copy of the official ballot
(sample ballot), a notice of the polling place, a complete copy
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of each local measure, and an analysis of each measure.
Throughout the Elections Code, however, there are a variety of
terms used to refer to state or county voter information guides.
For example, various Elections Code Sections use the terms
"ballot pamphlet," "state ballot pamphlet," and "statewide voter
pamphlet" when describing the state voter information guide.
Moreover, the terms "sample ballot" and "voter pamphlet" are
used throughout the Elections Code when referring to the county
voter information guide.
According to county elections officials, the use of different
terms throughout the Elections Code can be confusing when trying
to comply with existing law. This bill will clean-up the
Elections Code and standardize these terms.
SB 360 (Padilla, Chapter 602, Statutes of 2013). In 2013, the
Legislature passed and the Governor signed SB 360 (Padilla),
which significantly modified the procedures for the
certification of voting systems that are used in elections held
in the state. To prevent voting system vendors from rushing
systems into testing so that those systems would not need to
comply with the new testing requirements, SB 360 permitted a
voting system that was submitted for federal qualification
before August 1, 2013, and obtained federal qualification before
January 1, 2015, to be submitted for state approval under the
state's voting system certification requirements that were in
place prior to the approval of SB 360 (Padilla). The August 1,
2013 date was intended to ensure that voting system upgrades
that were ready for testing could move forward under the voting
system rules in place at the time. The January 1, 2015 date was
intended to ensure voting systems upgrades had enough time to
complete the federal testing.
However, after SB 360 was signed into law, it was brought to the
Assembly Elections & Redistricting Committee's attention that
one set of voting system equipment that was being prepared for
federal testing was not submitted for federal qualification
until late August 2013. A number of counties were interested in
upgrading components of their voting systems with that
equipment. Consequently, the California Association of Clerks
and Election Officials requested to move the date under which a
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voting system had to be submitted for federal qualification in
order for that system to be subject to state testing
requirements that existed prior to the enactment of SB 360
(Padilla) - from August 1, 2013, to September 1, 2013. That
request was incorporated into AB 2562 (Fong, Chapter 909,
Statutes of 2014).
Comments
1) This is one of the Assembly Elections & Redistricting
Committee's omnibus bills containing various minor and
technical changes to provisions of the Elections Code. All
of the provisions of this bill are changes requested by the
California Association of Clerks and Election Officials.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:NoLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified8/18/16)
California Association of Clerks and Election Officials
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/18/16)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 5/5/16
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, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier,
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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, Mathis, Mayes,
McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte,
O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez,
Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting,
Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Beth Gaines
Prepared by:Frances Tibon Estoista / E. & C.A. / (916) 651-4106
8/19/16 18:49:22
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