BILL ANALYSIS
AB 46
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Date of Hearing: June 21, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Paul Fong, Chair
AB 46 (Monning) - As Amended: June 14, 2010
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
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|ASSEMBLY: | |(June 1, 2009) |SENATE: |33-0 |(June 17, |
| | | | | |2010) |
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(vote not relevant)
SUBJECT : Elections: official canvass: manual tally. (URGENCY)
SUMMARY : Provides flexibility to elections officials in four
California counties to conduct separate manual tallies of
polling place ballots and vote by mail (VBM) ballots for
elections held on three specified dates.
The Senate amendments delete the Assembly version of this bill,
and instead:
1)Authorize an official who conducts an election in San Luis
Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, or Santa Cruz County that
takes place on June 8, 2010, June 22, 2010, or August 17,
2010, to conduct a public manual tally of ballots tabulated by
the voting system used in the election by completing the
following:
a) A public manual tally of ballots cast at the polling
place in one percent of the precincts, excluding all VBM
ballots; and,
b) A separate public manual tally of not less than one
percent of the VBM ballots.
2)Provide that an official who conducts a public manual tally of
ballots using the procedure outlined above for an election
does not need to conduct a public manual tally of the ballots
cast in one percent of precincts, including all VBM ballots,
for that election.
3)Add an urgency clause.
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4)Add a January 1, 2011 sunset date.
EXISTING LAW requires the elections official, during the
official canvass of an election in which a voting system is
used, to conduct a public manual tally of ballots cast in one
percent of the precincts, including any VBM ballots cast in
those precincts.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill extended the sunset date on
both the Energy Conservation Assistance Account and the Local
Jurisdiction Energy Assistance Account, to January 1, 2020.
FISCAL EFFECT : Keyed non-fiscal by the Legislative Counsel.
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COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of the Bill : According to the author:
Current law requires elections officials to conduct a
manual tally of 1% of randomly selected precincts for each
contest on the ballot. As a result, county elections
officials must sort their [VBM] ballots into the precincts
before the 1% manual tally begins. This is a very time
consuming process, especially given the increase in VBM
voting.
[AB 46] gives San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara,
and Santa Cruz counties the option to conduct two separate
1% manual tallies for each contest for the June 8, 2010,
June 22, 2010, and if conducted, August 15, 2010,
elections. One manual tally would be of the precinct
ballots and the other would be for the VBM ballots for each
election.
2)Senate District 15 Special Election and Manual Tallies : 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 man power required 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 VBM 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. According to
information from Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties,
the alternate manual tally process proposed by this bill could
reduce the number of man-hours required for the post-election
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manual tally by 90 percent.
3)Previous Legislation : Among other provisions, SB 1235
(Bowen), Chapter 893, Statutes of 2006, required county
elections officials to include VBM ballots in the manual tally
of votes cast in one percent of the precincts.
4)Prior Version : The prior version of this bill, which was
approved by the Assembly, extended the sunset date on the
Energy Conservation Assistance Account and the Local
Jurisdiction Energy Assistance Account, to January 1, 2020.
Those provisions were removed from this bill in the Senate,
and the current contents were added. As a result, this bill
has been re-referred to this committee pursuant to Assembly
Rule 77.2.
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors
San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder
Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors
Secretary of State Debra Bowen
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094