BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS, REAPPORTIONMENT AND
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair
BILL NO: AB 1096 HEARING DATE:7/7/09
AUTHOR: GALGIANI ANALYSIS BY: Frances Tibon
Estoista
AMENDED: 6/1/09
FISCAL: YES
SUBJECT
Elections: precinct maps
DESCRIPTION
Existing law requires elections officials to divide the
jurisdiction into precincts and prepare detail maps or
exterior descriptions thereof, or both, and as many copies
as the elections official may determine. The county
surveyor, if requested by an elections official, shall
provide assistance to the elections official in the
preparation of these maps or exterior descriptions.
Existing law provides that in any order establishing
precincts, their boundaries shall be defined by reference
to exterior descriptions or delineation thereof on a map or
maps.
Existing law allows elections officials to change or alter
precinct boundaries. If any changes or alterations are
made, the elections official shall prepare new detail maps
or exterior descriptions thereof, or both. The county
surveyor shall, if so requested, provide assistance to the
elections official in the preparation of the detail maps or
exterior descriptions.
Existing law further requires elections officials to
provide, at the request of any interested person, the
following information:
All precinct boundary changes and alterations made
within the current calendar year and the immediately
preceding two calendar years.
All precinct consolidations made within the current
calendar year and the immediately preceding two
calendar years, specifying the election or elections
in which the consolidations were made.
The information provided to persons shall include
the precinct numbers before the change or alteration
and then a description, including precinct numbers, of
the changes or alterations. The description may
include maps.
The information shall be compiled for each calendar
year and shall be kept and filed so as to be
accessible to any person upon request.
The elections official may charge a person
requesting information the amount needed to reimburse
the jurisdiction for the actual expenses incurred in
providing copies of the information required under
this section.
This bill requires elections officials to provide
electronic copies of precinct maps to any interested
person.
This bill requires election officials to provide all
current precinct boundaries and precinct consolidations to
any interested person.
This bill requires precinct maps and boundary changes and
consolidations be made available in both print and
electronic forms.
BACKGROUND
In the last ten years, county election officials have
shifted to using electronic methods such as 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. Counties are not
consistent in providing copies of their precinct boundaries
to the public in an electronic format. Other counties
charge prohibitive prices in excess of the actual costs to
the jurisdiction. This means that campaigns, vendors and
other interested members of the public often have to
manually recreate data that already exists and was created
at public expense.
AB 1096 (GALGIANI) Page
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COMMENTS
1.According to the author : AB 1096 updates California's
Election Code relating to public access to precinct
boundary information. AB 1096 requires election
officials to make available to the public information on
all precinct boundaries, not just modified boundaries.
It also requires this information include maps and to be
available in both print and electronic formats.
PRIOR ACTION
Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee: 7-0
Assembly Appropriations Committee: 13-0
Assembly Floor: 77-0
POSITIONS
Sponsor: Author
Support: None received
Oppose: None received
AB 1096 (GALGIANI) Page
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