BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS, REAPPORTIONMENT AND
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair
BILL NO: AB 46 HEARING
DATE: 6/17/10
AUTHOR: MONNING ANALYSIS BY:
Darren Chesin
AMENDED: 6/14/10
FISCAL: NO
SUBJECT
Special vacancy elections: Senate District 15: manual tally
DESCRIPTION
Existing law requires an election official, during the
official canvass of every election, to conduct a public
manual tally of ballots tabulated by an automated system,
including vote by mail (VBM) ballots, cast in one percent
of the precincts chosen at random. VBM ballots must be
sorted by precinct and combined with the corresponding
polling place ballots for purposes of the manual tally.
The purpose of the manual tally is to ensure that the
automated system tabulated the ballots correctly.
This bill permits Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz
and San Luis Obispo Counties to conduct separate
post-election manual tallies of one percent of the polling
place ballots and one percent of the VBM ballots for the
June 8 Statewide Primary Election as well as the June 22
special primary and August 17 special run-off elections to
fill the vacancy in Senate District 15.
This bill contains an urgency clause.
BACKGROUND
You Want it When ? On April 27, 2010 the Governor issued a
proclamation setting August 17, 2010 as the date for a
special runoff election to fill the vacancy in Senate
District 15 which was created when former Senator Abel
Maldonado was sworn in as Lieutenant Governor. Pursuant to
current law, the special primary election was scheduled for
June 22, 2010, just two weeks after the regular Statewide
Primary Election on June 8, 2010.
Concerns over the cost associated and required staff time
to conduct two June elections prompted the Senate District
15 counties to work with the Secretary of State's office to
develop a proposal that will improve the ability of the
counties to manage this compacted election schedule. The
change proposed by this bill provides a simpler process for
the post election manual tally conducted on vote by mail
ballots only.
Counties currently have to manually tally a portion of
these ballots but must first sort them by precinct. By
allowing the counties to conduct separate manual tallies
for polling place and VBM ballots, elections officials will
not have to conduct the labor intensive and lengthy sorting
process.
COMMENTS
1.According to supporters of this bill, existing law
ensures that VBMs are included in the one percent manual
tally. For many counties sorting the VBMs into the
precincts before the tally is a time consuming process,
especially given the growth in VBMs. This bill would
permit the counties that make up Senate District 15 to
conduct two separate one percent tallies for the 6/8,
6/22, and 8/17 elections each election. One tally would
be for the precinct ballots, the other would be for the
VBMs.
The SD 15 special vacancy elections are estimated to have
significant costs to the counties involved. This measure
will save hundreds of hours in staff time during the
three elections and allow the registrars' staffs to
complete the certification of the elections in the short
time allotted for that process. This simple change in
procedure will not affect the purpose of the manual
tally.
PRIOR ACTION
Prior votes do not reflect the current version of this bill
AB 46 (MONNING) Page
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which was completely rewritten.
POSITIONS
Sponsor: Author
Support: Secretary of State
San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder
San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors
Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors
Oppose: None received
AB 46 (MONNING) Page
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