BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 450
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB
450 (Allen and Hertzberg)
As Amended August 15, 2016
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE: (vote not relevant)
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|Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Elections |5-2 |Weber, Gordon, Low, |Harper, Travis |
| | |Mullin, Nazarian |Allen |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Appropriations |14-6 |Gonzalez, Bloom, |Bigelow, Chang, |
| | |Bonilla, Bonta, |Gallagher, Jones, |
| | |Calderon, Daly, |Obernolte, Wagner |
| | |Eggman, Eduardo | |
| | |Garcia, Holden, | |
| | |Quirk, Santiago, | |
| | |Weber, Wood, McCarty | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Permits counties to conduct elections in which every
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voter is mailed a ballot and vote centers and ballot drop-off
locations are available prior to and on election day, in lieu of
operating polling places for the election, subject to certain
conditions. Specifically, this bill:
1)Permits the counties of Calaveras, Inyo, Madera, Napa, Nevada,
Orange, Sacramento, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Clara,
Shasta, Sierra, Sutter, and Tuolumne, on or after January 1,
2018, and all other counties, on or after January 1, 2020, to
choose to conduct elections where all voters are mailed a
ballot and where vote centers and ballot drop-off locations
are available prior to and on election day, in lieu of
operating polling places for the election, subject to the
following conditions:
a) Vote Centers. Requires vote centers to be open, in lieu
of polling places, on election day, and for the 10 days
prior to election day. Requires, for regularly scheduled
elections, one vote center for every 50,000 registered
voters from the 10th day to the 4th day prior to the
election, and one vote center for every 10,000 registered
voters from the 3rd day prior to the election through
election day, with no fewer than two vote centers.
Requires, for special elections, one vote center for every
60,000 registered voters from the 10th day to the day prior
to the election, and one vote center for every 30,000
registered voters on election day, as specified. Specifies
minimum hours of operation at vote centers. Requires that
a voter be able to return a vote by mail (VBM) ballot,
register to vote, and vote at any vote center in the
voter's county of residence. Requires vote centers to be
accessible to voters with disabilities, and requires
language assistance to be provided at vote centers
consistent with current state and federal law.
b) Vote by Mail Ballots and Return. Requires all
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registered voters to be mailed ballots and requires ballot
drop-off locations, consisting of a secure, accessible,
locked ballot box, to be available from the 28th day before
the election through Election Day, as specified. Requires
a ballot drop-off location for every 15,000 registered
voters.
c) Election Administration. Requires county elections
officials to develop a plan for conducting elections, and
specifies the elements of the plan, including voter
education and outreach, and the public process for
developing the plan. Requires the Secretary of State (SOS)
to review and approve the voter education and outreach
portions of the plan.
d) Requires a toll-free voter assistance hotline,
accessible to voters who are deaf and hard of hearing,
maintained by the county elections official that is
operational no later than 29 days before the day of the
election until 5 p.m. on the day after the election.
Requires the hotline to provide assistance to voters in all
languages in which the county is required to provide voting
materials and assistance, as specified.
e) Requires the county elections official to establish a
Language Access Advisory Committee and a Voting
Accessibility Advisory Committee, as specified.
f) Permits a county to conduct a special election as an
all-mailed ballot election under this bill only if the
county has either previously conducted an election in
accordance with the provisions of this bill, or has adopted
a final election administration plan and completed all
activities provided for in the county's outreach plan prior
to the special election.
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2)Los Angeles County Alternative. Permits Los Angeles County,
beginning January 1, 2020, to conduct elections subject to the
same conditions that are generally applicable above, with the
following exceptions:
a) The county is not required to mail a ballot to every
registered voter, but is required to mail ballots to
permanent VBM voters, voters in precincts with fewer than
500 registered voters, voters in jurisdictions that are
shared with counties that are conducting elections pursuant
to this bill, and voters in precincts that are either more
than a 30-minute travel time from a vote center, or where
the precinct's polling place from the last statewide
election is more than 15 miles from the nearest vote
center.
b) Requires, for regularly scheduled elections, one vote
center for every 30,000 registered voters from the 10th day
to the 4th day prior to the election, and one vote center
for every 7,500 registered voters from the 3rd day prior to
the election through election day. Requires, for regularly
scheduled elections, at least one drop-off location for
every 15,000 permanent VBM voters, with no fewer than two
drop-off locations, as specified.
c) Provides that the county may conduct elections under
this alternative for no more than four years, and allows
the county to conduct elections as otherwise provided in
this bill after that time.
3)Requires the SOS to do all of the following:
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a) Report specified information to the Legislature within
six months of any election conducted pursuant to this bill,
including information about turnout by various demographic
groups.
b) Establish a task force, as specified and in existence
until January 1, 2022, to review elections conducted
pursuant to this bill, and to provide comments and
recommendations to the Legislature no later than six months
after each election.
c) Enforce the provisions of this bill, as specified.
4)Allows a VBM ballot to be returned to any polling place within
the state, instead of being limited to polling places within
the jurisdiction of the elections official who issued the
ballot.
5)Contains double-jointing language to avoid chaptering problems
with AB 1921 (Gonzalez).
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
1)The SOS will incur ongoing General Fund costs of about
$280,000 for three positions to review and approve county
voter education and outreach plans, provide technical support
for election equipment at vote centers, which will be
connected to the statewide voter registration database
(VoteCal), conduct demographic analysis of election data, and
staff the SOS task force.
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2)Initial costs to participating counties will likely be
significant, but in many cases will result in long-term cost
savings. Since the bill is permissible, any county costs will
not be state reimbursable.
COMMENTS: According to the author, "California saw historically
low voter turnout in 2014. Only 25% of all registered
California voters cast a ballot in the June primary and only 42%
participated in the November general election.
"SB 450 is modeled on the very successful way Colorado conducts
its elections wherein every voter automatically receives a vote
by mail ballot who may then return that ballot by mail or in
person at numerous drop-off locations and innovative vote
centers. In lieu of traditional neighborhood polling places,
these vote centers are placed in convenient locations all over
town and open several days prior to each election. Furthermore,
voters can use any vote center or drop-off location in their
home county - they are not limited to using the one closest to
their residence.
"Fully implemented for the 2014 elections, this hybrid system
resulted in Colorado achieving one of the highest voter turnouts
in the nation. SB 450 will replicate this system in California
on a county by county, opt-in basis beginning in 2018."
While the provisions of this bill are modeled after Colorado
law, California's unique challenges will necessitate policies
that differ from the Colorado model in some respects. For
example, California's language assistance requirements under the
federal Voting Rights Act are much more extensive than
Colorado's obligations under that law. Other challenges that
California likely will face in moving to an election system
similar to Colorado's include the state's size (both in terms of
population and geography), and the fact that fewer voters and
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elections officials have familiarity with vote centers and
elections in which all voters are mailed a ballot. Overcoming
these challenges may require more robust voter education and
outreach, and may require other adjustments to the Colorado
model. This bill contains many adjustments to the Colorado
model in an attempt to address this state's unique challenges.
Vote centers are polling locations at which any registered voter
in a county can cast a regular (i.e., non-provisional) ballot,
regardless of the voter's precinct. Voters do not need to vote
at polling places near their homes, but can vote at any of the
vote centers throughout the county.
Vote centers provide greater flexibility to voters in deciding
where and when to cast their ballots. The trade-off is that
there are considerably fewer physical voting locations in
elections using vote centers than in elections using
neighborhood polling places. This reduction in the number of
physical voting locations could increase the distance that some
voters have to travel in order to cast a ballot in person.
On the other hand, because vote centers would be open for the 10
days prior to election day (including two full weekends), the
number of days and hours during which in-person voting is
available would increase significantly. Additionally, with vote
centers, a voter has the flexibility to vote near his or her
work, or near his or her child's school, if that is a more
convenient option.
This bill includes an option for conducting elections that is
only available to Los Angeles County. While that option is
similar to the model offered to other counties under the bill,
the "Los Angeles option" generally requires a larger number of
vote centers, but does not require the county to mail a ballot
to every registered voter. This option is designed, in part, in
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recognition of the fact that voters in Los Angeles County use
VBM ballots at much lower rates than in other counties in the
state. Furthermore, the county's large population would create
significant logistical challenges if the county were required to
begin mailing VBM ballots to millions of additional registered
voters in a short period of time. This bill, however, requires
Los Angeles County to transition to the election model that is
applicable to all other counties after four years of conducting
elections under the Los Angeles option.
Please see the policy committee analysis for a full discussion
of this bill.
Analysis Prepared by:
Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094 FN:
0004003