BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
308 (Cook)
Hearing Date: 8/17/2009 Amended: 5/11/2009
Consultant: Maureen Ortiz Policy Vote: ER&CA 4-0
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 308 requires county elections officials to
prepare a special runoff ballot for special absentee voters to
be counted if there is a runoff election for any of the offices
on that ballot.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund
Runoff ballots -------potentially
$100 annually--------- General*
*Reimbursable local mandate.
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STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE.
Preliminary estimates for county elections officials to prepare
initial runoff ballots, conduct voter outreach, and consequently
manually count runoff ballots could exceed $100,000 per
election, although the actual number of run-off elections that
will be held is unknown. These costs would constitute a state
reimbursable local mandate, and would therefore be paid from the
General Fund. There were approximately 103,000 special absentee
voters in the November 2008 election. If 5,000 special runoff
ballots are sent annually, with an average cost of $20 each for
printing, mailing and processing the ballots, instructions, and
return envelopes, costs would be $100,000.
Current 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, 2) a United States citizen temporarily living
outside the territorial limits of the country, 3) a person
serving on a merchant vessel documented under the law of the
United States, or 4) a spouse or dependent of a member of the
armed forces.
Current law requires the elections official to mail a ballot to
special absentee voters as soon as possible on or after the 60th
day prior to an election to ensure that the voter has sufficient
time to receive, complete, and return his or her absentee
ballot. To help accommodate and facilitate the voting by
special absentee voters, AB 2941 (Bates), Chapter 821, Statutes
of 2004, permits these voters to return their ballots by
facsimile transmission. This law was enacted to accommodate
voters who, due to the potential delays in international mail
delivery, or the structural barriers present in combat areas,
may not be able to receive, vote, and return an absentee ballot
in the 60 day period provided for overseas absentee voters.
California law also allows the elections official to transmit an
absentee ballot to an overseas voter by facsimile or other
electronic transmission.
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AB 308 (Cook)
AB 308 will provide that 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 there is a runoff election. On the
first ballot, the voter will vote for his or her preferred
candidate as currently done during any election, however, the
second ballot will be used to rank the candidates in order of
preference.
The California Association of Clerks and Election Officials
notes that not only does the receipt of multiple ballots for the
same election present confusion to overseas voters, it is also
possible that other races and ballot measures may be added to
the runoff ballot after the initial election. In these
instances, a second runoff ballot would have to be sent which
could result in considerable confusion for voters.
The purpose of the special runoff ballot is to accommodate
overseas voters who may not have sufficient time to receive,
vote and return a regular runoff ballot in time for it to be
counted by the close of polls on elections day. In California,
runoff elections which sometimes occur in special elections held
to fill vacancies in the Legislature or Congress are generally
scheduled 8 or 9 weeks after the first round election, however,
some cities have charters that require runoff elections to be
held in a shorter timeframe making it sometimes difficult for
overseas voters to receive, vote, and return their ballots on
time.