BILL ANALYSIS
AB 84
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Date of Hearing: April 22, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
AB 84 (Hill) - As Introduced: December 23, 2009
Policy Committee: ElectionsVote:7-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill requires election officials to establish a free access
system that allows a vote-by-mail (VBM) voter to confirm whether
their VBM ballot was counted and, if not, the reason it was not
counted.
FISCAL EFFECT
Given that similar notifications are already required for
provisional ballots and that VBM voters may already obtain
information regarding whether their ballot was received (see
Comment #2), any additional reimbursable costs to comply with
this bill's provision should be minor.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . Under current law, there are a number of reasons why
a VBM ballot that was completed and returned to the elections
official may not be able to be counted. Two of the most
common reasons are (1) ballots arriving after election day,
and (2) the signature on the identification envelope does not
match the one on the original affidavit of registration.
(Illness and age can be factors that contribute to a signature
changing over time.) By requiring elections officials to
provide a way for VBM voters to verify if their ballot has
been counted and a reason if it was not counted, voters whose
ballots were unable to be counted can take appropriate steps
to ensure that their VBM ballots are counted in the future.
The author believes that VBM voters deserve the same assurance
that their votes will be counted as provisional ballot voters.
This bill is sponsored by the Secretary of State.
AB 84
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2)Prior Legislation . This bill is substantially similar to AB
2964 (Levine) of 2008, which was one of numerous bills
summarily vetoed by the governor without a stated objection.
AB 2964 passed this committee 12-5 and passed the Assembly
floor 52-22.
SB 1725 (Bowen)/Chapter 687 of 2006, requires election
officials to establish procedures to track and confirm the
receipt of voted VBM ballots and to make this information
available by means of online access using the county's
elections division web site, or if none is available, by means
of a toll-free telephone number.
SB 613 (Perata)/Chapter 613 of 2003, in part required the
establishment of a free access system allowing a voter casting
a provisional ballot to confirm whether the ballot was counted
and, if not, the reason it was not counted.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081