BILL ANALYSIS
AB 780
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Date of Hearing: May 13, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
AB 780 (John A. Perez) - As Amended: April 15, 2009
Policy Committee: ElectionsVote:5-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill allows a voter who is away from his or her precinct on
election day, due to unforeseen circumstances, to cast a
provisional ballot in a jurisdiction other than where the voter
resides.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Permits a qualified voter who, due to unforeseen
circumstances, has been forced to leave the jurisdiction where
he or she is registered to vote and is unable to request a
vote-by-mail (VBM) ballot, to vote a "failsafe ballot"-a
provisional ballot with which the voter may vote only for
candidates for statewide office and measures appearing on the
ballot.
2)Requires a voter to meet the following criteria in order to
vote a failsafe ballot in a county other than the one in which
he or she is registered to vote:
a) The voter must declare, under penalty of perjury, that
he or she is a registered voter residing in the State of
California.
b) Unforeseen circumstances must have arisen precluding the
voter from casting his or her ballot in the jurisdiction
where he or she is registered to vote.
c) The circumstances arose suddenly and without warning and
after the period in which the voter could have requested a
VBM ballot has passed, and the voter did not request a vote
by mail ballot or the voter requested a VBM ballot but the
ballot never arrived or arrived too late to be returned.
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3)Requires county elections officials to prepare and distribute
forms containing the statement to be signed per (2)(a).
4)Requires the failsafe ballot and statement of qualifications
to be enclosed in a provisional ballot envelope for
transmittal by the county elections official to the
appropriate jurisdiction within one week of the election.
FISCAL EFFECT
Potentially significant reimbursable GF costs to counties. The
number of voters seeking to vote using a failsafe ballot is
unknown, but could become substantial over time. Regardless of
the number of such voters, counties would incur costs to provide
at each precinct the necessary declaration forms and to train
all pollworkers regarding the special instructions and
procedures necessary to accommodate these voters and the special
handling of their completed ballots. Each county would have to
segregate these ballots and mail them to the respective
jurisdiction of every failsafe voter within one week of the
election, and then process and count those failsafe ballots they
receive from other counties. Because counties use different
ballot types and vote counting equipment, many of these
out-of-county provisional ballots may require hand tallying.
Finally, because counties normally process provisional ballots
last during the vote canvas, the bill would necessitate their
doing so earlier, at probably greater costs. The sum of all
these costs is unknown, but at $5,000 to $10,000 per county,
statewide costs would total $290,000 to $580,000 annually.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . According to the author, "AB 780 is intended to
continue the series of laws which have made voting as easy as
possible in California. Under current law, voters may request
an absentee or vote by mail ballot for any reason provided
they make the request within the allotted timeframe set forth
in law. Voters who are mistakenly left off the voter rolls on
Election Day are entitled to cast a provisional ballot and
have their eligibility established after the fact, ensuring
that all voters within a county are able to cast a vote and
have it counted, provided they are a qualified elector.
However, voters who are unable to be in their county of
registration on Election Day, whether they had to leave due to
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unforeseen circumstances or whether they had the foreknowledge
they would be gone and requested a vote by mail ballot which
never arrived have no recourse.
"AB 780 addresses this problem by allowing California voters
the option of voting in statewide contests (President and
United States Senate, California's Constitutional statewide
officers and statewide ballot measures) and have that ballot
counted in their home county. This measure will enfranchise
those Californians who, through no fault of their own, would
otherwise be unable to participate in the electoral process."
2)Related Legislation : AB 1440 (Swanson), pending in the
Assembly, allows emergency service workers responding to a
state emergency to vote a special provisional ballot
containing state ballot measures and candidates for statewide
office.
3)Prior Legislation : AB 773 (Blakeslee) of 2007, which allowed
an absentee voter to return his or her ballot to any member of
a precinct board at any polling place within the state, not
just one within the jurisdiction of the elections official who
issued the ballot, was vetoed. The governor objected to the
potential additional costs to counties and the potential for
delays in processing election results.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081