BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS, REAPPORTIONMENT AND
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair
BILL NO: AB 308 HEARING DATE: 6/16/09
AUTHOR: COOK ANALYSIS BY: Frances Tibon
Estoista
AMENDED: 5/11/09
FISCAL: YES
SUBJECT
Special absentee voters
DESCRIPTION
Existing law defines "special absentee voter" as an elector
who is any of the following:
1. A member of the armed forces of the United States or
any auxiliary branch thereof.
2. A citizen of the United States temporarily living
outside the territorial limits of the United States or
the District of Columbia.
3. Serving on a merchant vessel documented under the laws
of the United States.
4. A spouse or dependent of a member of the armed forces
or any auxiliary branch thereof.
Existing law provides that an application for a vote by
mail (VBM) ballot by a special absentee voter or by an
overseas voter shall be deemed an affidavit of registration
and an application for permanent VBM voter status. The
application must be completed by the voter and must contain
the voter's name, residence address for voting purposes,
the address to which the ballot is to be sent, the voter's
political party for a primary election and the voter's
signature.
Existing law requires the county elections official to mail
a ballot to all special absentee voters and overseas voters
who are permanent VBM voters as soon as possible on or
after the 60th day prior to an election.
Existing law permits a special absentee voter to register
to vote and apply for a ballot by facsimile transmission,
and allows an elections official to send a ballot by mail,
facsimile, or electronic transmission to a special absentee
voter.
Existing law allows a special absentee voter who is
temporarily living outside of the United States to return
his or her ballot by facsimile transmission.
Existing law allows a special absentee voter who is unable
to appear at his or her polling place because of being
recalled to service after the final day for applying for a
VBM ballot to appear before the elections official in the
county in which the voter is registered to apply for a VBM
ballot.
This bill requires the elections official to send a
"special runoff ballot" to each voter that qualifies as a
special absentee voter, who is temporarily living outside
the United States, at every election for which there may be
a runoff election held within 90 days of that election.
This bill requires the special runoff ballot to be sent to
the voter in addition to the regular runoff ballot.
Specifically, this bill :
1. Requires the special runoff ballot to contain a list of
all offices (and a list of the candidates for those
offices) being contested for which there may be a runoff
election held within 90 days of that election.
2. Allows the special absentee voter to indicate his or
her order of preference for each candidate for each
office on the special runoff ballot.
3. Requires the special runoff ballot to be received by
the elections official by the close of polls on the day
of the runoff election in order to be eligible to be
counted.
4. Provides that, in the event of a runoff election, the
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elections official shall tabulate each special runoff
ballot as a vote for the candidate in the runoff
election who is ranked highest on the ballot.
5. Requires the elections official to tabulate the regular
ballot instead of the special runoff ballot from a voter
if the voter sent both ballots back and both were
received before the close of polls on election day.
6. Requires instructions to be sent with the special
runoff ballot to explain the runoff voting process.
BACKGROUND
In 2004, the Legislature approved and the Governor signed
AB 2941 (Bates), Chapter 821, Statutes of 2004, among other
provisions, permitted special absentee voters who are
temporarily living outside the United States to return
their ballots by facsimile transmission. AB 2941 was
modeled after the procedures adopted by the Secretary of
State (SOS) for the 2003 recall election, when the SOS had
first ordered ballots returned from overseas voters by fax
to be counted. AB 2941 was intended to accommodate voters
who, due to potential delays in international mail delivery
and structural barriers present in combat areas, may not be
able to receive, vote, and return a ballot in the 60-day
period provided for overseas voters. Last year, the
Legislature approved and the Governor signed AB 2786
(Salas), Chapter 252, Statutes of 2008, which extended the
sunset date on the provisions of AB 2941 to January 1,
2011.
COMMENTS
1. According to the author : Voters living overseas face
several obstacles in exercising their right to vote.
These include slow communications and mail delivery as
well as unfamiliar and confusing procedures for
applying for absentee ballots, receiving their ballots,
and returning them. There is also a threat to voter
privacy and election integrity posed by some of the
proposals to use fax and email to facilitate these
burdens. Active military personnel in combat roles are
in the most difficult situation of all, since they are
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very mobile and in locations where traditional postal
mail is understandably erratic.
The use of a ranked ballot insures that the tight
deadlines imposed by the two-round runoff election
format will not leave out overseas voters, including
those in the armed forces. It has already been used
successfully in Louisiana and Arkansas and was recently
adopted in South Carolina as well. The number of
elections in California that would be affected is
relatively small, however, every voter's right to vote
is sacrosanct, and every election is important.
2. Facilitating Voting by Overseas Voters : Over the
last six years, the Legislature has made a number of
changes to state law to facilitate voting by military
voters and other California residents who are outside
of the United States. AB 188 (Maze), Chapter 347,
Statutes of 2003, streamlined a number of provisions of
state law to make it easier for overseas voters to
receive their ballots and cast a vote. Among other
provisions, AB 188 did the following:
Specified that an application for a VBM ballot by
an overseas voter was deemed to be a request for voter
registration (if the voter was not already registered
to vote) and an application for permanent VBM voter
status. While California law previously allowed an
application for a VBM ballot made by federal post card
application to serve as an affidavit for registration,
such an application would register the voter for that
election only. AB 188 allowed any VBM ballot request
received from an overseas voter to be considered a
request for voter registration, and the voter's
registration was permanent.
Made all overseas voters permanent VBM voters,
thereby eliminating the need for overseas military
voters and other overseas voters to request a VBM
ballot for each separate election.
Required that all overseas voters be mailed a VBM
ballot 60 days before the election, to ensure that the
voter has sufficient time to receive, complete, and
return his or her ballot. Also repealed a requirement
that these overseas voters make certain written
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declarations in order to be eligible to receive their
VBM ballot 60 days before the election.
Allowed the elections official to send an overseas
voter his or her ballot by electronic transmission.
1. Voter Confusion : Under the provisions of this bill,
overseas voters will receive two similar ballots at the
same time for certain elections. One ballot will be
for the first round of the election, while the second
ballot will be the "special runoff ballot" that is
being provided in the event that (1) there is a runoff
election, and (2) the voter does not have enough time
to complete and return the regular ballot for that
runoff election. Depending on the races and/or
measures that are on the ballot at the initial
election, the two ballots may contain all the same
races and candidates, or the first ballot may contain
races and/or measures that do not appear on the special
runoff ballot. On the first ballot, the voter will
vote for his or her preferred candidate - just as he or
she would in any other election - while on the special
runoff ballot, the voter would rank the candidates in
order of preference. Additionally, to the extent that
there is a runoff, the same voter will receive a
regular ballot for that runoff election at which he or
she will vote for his or her preferred candidate,
rather than ranking the candidates in order of
preference.
As a result, if this bill becomes law, at certain
elections, overseas voters will receive three different
ballots for two elections, even though ultimately, only
two of those ballots (at most) will be counted.
Additionally, the ballots will use two different voting
methods - two of the ballots will ask the voter to
choose his or her preferred candidate, while the third
ballot will instruct the voter to rank candidates in
order of preference. Given these circumstances, it is
likely that there will be at least some voter confusion
as to which election each ballot is for, when to return
each ballot, how to vote on each ballot, and whether to
vote in the same race three times on three different
ballots for just two elections (an election and a
runoff election).
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2. Other States : The Committee is aware of three states
that currently require that overseas voters be sent a
runoff ballot for use in a runoff election if one is
necessary. Those three states are Arkansas, Louisiana,
and South Carolina. In those states, the "runoff
ballot" was implemented largely out of necessity due to
the close proximity of state runoff elections to the
first round election. In Louisiana, a runoff election
is held just one month after the statewide general
election. In Arkansas, a runoff election is held just
three weeks after the statewide primary election. And
in South Carolina, a runoff election is held just two
weeks after the statewide primary election. The
proximity of these runoff elections to the initial
round of voting makes it next to impossible for
overseas voters to receive and return a ballot for the
runoff election.
In California, however, runoff elections are not
typically held in such close proximity to first round
elections. In special elections held to fill vacancies
in the Legislature or Congress, the runoff election (if
necessary) is held 8 or 9 weeks after the first round.
As such, it's unclear whether the situation that
prompted Arkansas, Louisiana, and South Carolina to
adopt the procedure to send runoff ballots to overseas
voters exists in California.
3. Previous Legislation : AB 1662 (Cook) of 2007 was
substantially similar to this bill. AB 1662 was held
on the Senate Appropriations Committee's suspense file.
PRIOR ACTION
Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee: 7-0
Assembly Appropriations Committee: 15-0
Assembly Floor: 74-0
POSITIONS
Sponsor: Californians for Electoral Reform
Support: American Legion, Department of California
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American Veterans, Department of California
California Alliance for Retired Americans (CARA)
Vietnam Veterans of America, California State
Council
Oppose: California Association of Clerks and Election
Officials (CACEO)
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