BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair

                                           306 (Fuller)
          
          Hearing Date:  6/29/2009        Amended: 4/13/2009
          Consultant:  Maureen Ortiz      Policy Vote: ER&CA 5-0
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____
          BILL SUMMARY:   AB 306 requires the Secretary of State to  
          establish a process whereby voters can opt out of receiving the  
          state ballot pamphlet by mail.
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          ____
                            Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions         2009-10      2010-11       2011-12     Fund
                                                                  
          Notification process          ----------------minor,  
          absorbable-----------------            General

          Potential savings          ----unknown, potentially several  
          hundred thousand 
                                                                            
                 per election--------                      General
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          ____

          STAFF COMMENTS: 
          
          The Secretary of State could realize substantial savings in  
          printing and mailing costs of ballot pamphlets.  The current  
          cost of each pamphlet is approximately $0.71, and about 12  
          million are printed for each election.  For example, if only 5%  
          of registered voters choose not to receive a printed ballot in  
          the mail, savings to the Secretary of State could exceed  
          $400,000 per statewide election.  The costs of notifying  
          registered voters of this option will be minor and would likely  
          consist of a notice on the SOS website.  Other requirements such  
          as developing the "opt out" process will be incorporated into  
          the new statewide voter database which is currently under  
          development.

          Under existing law, the Secretary of State (SOS) prepares and  
          mails a state ballot pamphlet to each registered voter, and also  
          provides the complete content of each ballot on the SOS website.  










           The SOS is currently authorized to mail only one ballot  
          pamphlet to two or more registered voters having the same postal  
          address.

          AB 306 will allow voters to opt out of receiving a paper ballot  
          pamphlet by mail, but the bill provides that if there are two or  
          more registered voters at the same address, each voter must opt  
          out of receiving the ballot by mail.  The Secretary of State  
          will have to first establish a process to allow voters to opt  
          out, and to also enable voters to begin receiving a ballot  
          pamphlet by mail again if they so choose after opting out.

          The provisions of this bill will take effect only after the  
          Secretary of State has certified that a statewide voter  
          registration database that complies with the federal Help  
          America Vote Act of 2002 has been established.  The current  
          estimate for completion of the database is sometime in the year  
          2012.