BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 1096
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   May 6, 2009

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Kevin De Leon, Chair

                AB 1096 (Galgiani) - As Introduced:  February 27, 2009

          Policy Committee:                              ElectionsVote:7-0  
          (Consent)

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          Yes    Reimbursable:              Yes

           SUMMARY  

          This bill expands the requirement of elections officials to  
          provide precinct specified maps to the Secretary of State and  
          the Public. Specifically, this bill:

          1.Requires election officials to provide all current precinct  
            boundaries and precinct consolidations to any interested  
            person. 

          2.Requires that precinct maps and boundary changes and  
            consolidations be made available in both print and electronic  
            forms.

          3.Requires county elections officials to file with the Secretary  
            of State (SOS) copies of all precinct maps, in both print and  
            electronic formats, following each primary, as well as each  
            general election, and requires the SOS to keep these materials  
            on file for 12 years, make them accessible to any person upon  
            request, and to charge that person the amount necessary to  
            cover the state's costs to provide such information. 

          4.Requires elections officials to prepare detail maps of  
            precinct boundaries instead of giving elections officials the  
            choice to prepare either maps or exterior descriptions.

           FISCAL EFFECT  


          1)The SOS will incur one-time GF costs of around $100,000 to  
            establish a database for storing the electronic versions of  
            the precinct maps, and additional, undetermined costs to store  








                                                                  AB 1096
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            additional print copies of the precinct maps for primary  
            elections.


          2)State reimbursable costs for counties to provide the SOS with  
            electronic and print maps for the primary election are  
            unknown, but assuming an average of $1,500 per county (based  
            on a detailed estimate from one county) would total $87,000.   
            Additional reimbursable costs may be incurred for counties who  
            currently do not have the capability to generate electronic  
            maps.


           COMMENTS 

           Purpose  .  According to the author,  "In the last ten years,  
          county election officials have shifted to using electronic  
          methods (Geographic Information Systems- GIS) to create and  
          update precinct boundaries. At the same time, political  
          campaigns and data vendors have shifted to using these same  
          electronic methods to produce their own precinct maps. However,  
          many counties refused to provide copies of their precinct  
          boundaries to the public in an electronic format? AB 1096  
          updates California's Election Code relating to public access to  
          precinct boundary information."

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081