BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS, REAPPORTIONMENT AND
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair
BILL NO: AB 84 HEARING DATE: 6/16/09
AUTHOR: HILL ANALYSIS BY: Frances
Tibon Estoista
AMENDED: AS INTRODUCED
FISCAL: YES
SUBJECT
Vote by mail ballots
DESCRIPTION
Existing law outlines procedures for voting by mail and
establishes requirements for elections officials to compare
the signature on vote by mail (VBM) ballots with the
signature appearing on the affidavit of registration. If
the ballot is rejected because the signatures do not
compare, the envelope shall not be opened and the ballot
shall not be counted. The cause of the rejection shall be
written on the face of the identification envelope.
Existing law provides that on or before March 1, 2008, the
elections official shall establish procedures to track and
confirm the receipt of VBM ballots and to make this
information available by means of online access using the
county's elections division Internet website. If the
county does not have an elections division Internet
website, the elections official shall establish a toll-free
telephone number that may be used to confirm the date a
voted VBM was received.
This bill requires elections officials to establish
procedures that allows a VBM voter to find out whether his
or her VBM ballot was counted, and, if not, the reason why
it was not counted.
BACKGROUND
The number of voters choosing to vote using a VBM ballot
has increased significantly, particularly since the
enactment of AB 1520 (Shelley), Chapter 922, Statutes of
2001, which allowed any voter to become a permanent VBM
voter. Whereas just over 25% of voters who participated in
the 1998 statewide primary election voted by VBM ballot,
more than 41% of voters who participated in the last five
statewide elections voted by mail. These trends suggest
that the number of voters opting to vote by VBM ballot will
continue to increase.
The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requires counties to allow
voters who cast a provisional ballot to find out whether
their vote was counted. Counties can use the existing
system they already have in place as of March 1, 2008, to
let VBM voters know if their ballot was received by the
elections officials.
COMMENTS
1. According to the Author : Voting by mail has
increased significantly over the past few years as a
convenient method of voting. Safeguards built into the
method of voting included requiring elections officials
to verify the signature on a VBM ballot envelope with
the signature on the voter's registration card. In
some cases, a voter's signature may have changed over
time from the signature on file as a result of age or
illness. During the signature verification process, if
the signature on the ballot envelope does not match the
signature on file, the elections official will not
count the ballot. AB 84 gives VBM voters the same
rights afforded to provisional voters to find out
whether their ballot was counted, by requiring local
elections officials to inform voters whose ballots are
not counted the reason why, thus giving voters the
ability to take corrective action to ensure that VBM
ballots will be counted in future elections.
2. San Mateo County VBM Voters : San Mateo County
implemented a process for VBM voters to confirm if
their ballot was received at the county elections
office. VBM voters can log into the San Mateo County
Elections office website by entering three unique
identifiers and find out when the elections office
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received their ballot. According to San Mateo County,
the cost of doing this was minimal since county
elections officials already log in VBM ballots into
their computerized elections management systems.
3. Reasons Why a VBM Ballot Might Not be Counted : Under
current law, there are a number of reasons why a VBM
ballot that was completed and returned to elections
officials may not be counted. One of the most common
reasons is that many ballots are received by the
elections office after election day, and state law
requires that VBM ballots be received by the close of
polls on election day in order to be counted. A voter
who was under the impression that his or her ballot
would be counted as long as the envelope was postmarked
by election day could repeatedly have his or her ballot
not counted if that voter regularly waited until
election day to put their VBM ballot in the mail.
The other primary reason why a VBM ballot might not be
counted is that 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. For example, many older voters do not realize
that the signature on file with the registrar of voters
no longer matches their current signature and as a
result their VBM ballot may not be counted. 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.
4. Prior and Related Legislation : This bill is
substantially similar to AB 2964 (Levine) of 2008. AB
2964 was vetoed by the Governor, though the Governor
did not express any policy objections to the bill.
Instead, AB 2964 was one of the 136 bills that received
the same veto message as follows:
The historic delay in passing the 2008-2009 State
Budget has forced me to prioritize the bills sent to
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my desk at the end of the year's legislative session.
Given the delay, I am only signing bills that are the
highest priority for California. This bill does not
meet that standard and I cannot sign it at this time.
SB 1725 (Bowen), Chapter 687, Statutes of 2006,
requires elections officials to establish procedures by
March 1, 2008, to track and confirm the receipt of
voted VBM ballots and to make this information
available by online access using the county's
elections division website, or if none is available, by
means of a toll-free telephone number. SB 613
(Perata), Chapter 809, Statutes of 2003, in part
requires the establishment of a free access system
allowing a voter casting a provisional ballot to
confirm whether their ballot was counted and, if not,
the reason it was not counted.
PRIOR ACTION
Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee: 7-0
Assembly Appropriations Committee: 12-4
Assembly Floor: 70-0
POSITIONS
Sponsor: Secretary of State
Support: Asian Americans For Civil Rights & Equality
(AACRE)
California Association of Clerks and Election
Officials (CACEO)
California Common Cause
Californians for Electoral Reform
League of Women Voters
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
Oppose: None received
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