BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1228
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 5, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Paul Fong, Chair
AB 1228 (Yamada) - As Amended: April 13, 2009
SUBJECT : Elections: all-mailed ballot elections.
SUMMARY : Creates a pilot program allowing Yolo County to
conduct not more than three local elections at all-mail ballot
elections. Specifically, this bill :
1)Allows not more than three elections in Yolo County to be
conducted as all-mailed ballot elections, subject to the
following conditions:
a) The governing body of the city, county, or district, by
resolution, authorizes the all-mailed ballot election and
notifies the Secretary of State (SOS) of its intent to
conduct an all-mailed ballot election at least 88 days
prior to the date of the election.
b) The election does not occur on the same date as a
statewide primary or general election.
c) The election is not a special election to fill a vacancy
in a state office, the State Legislature, or Congress.
d) At least one polling place is provided in each city
within the jurisdiction and is open to receive voted
ballots for at least two weeks before the date of the
election and until 8 p.m. on the day of the election.
e) The elections official delivers to each voter all
supplies necessary for the use and return of the mail
ballot, including an envelope for the return of the voted
mail ballot, postage prepaid.
f) The elections official delivers to each voter, with
either the sample ballot or with the voter's ballot, a list
of the polling places provided under this bill. The list
of polling places must also be posted on the Internet Web
site of the Yolo County Elections Office.
g) The return of voted mail ballots is subject to the same
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procedures for the return of vote by mail (VBM) ballots at
a regular election.
2)Requires, if Yolo County conducts an all-mailed ballot
election pursuant to the provisions of this bill, that the
county report to the Legislature and to the SOS regarding the
success of the election. Requires the report to include, but
not be limited to, any statistics on the cost to conduct the
election; the turnout of different populations, including
whenever possible, but not limited to, the population
categories of race, ethnicity, age, gender, disability,
permanent VBM status, and political party affiliation; the
number of ballots that were not counted and the reasons why
they were rejected; voter fraud; and any other problems that
became known to the county during the election or canvass.
Requires the report, whenever possible, to compare the success
of the all-mailed ballot election to similar elections not
conducted as all-mailed ballot elections in the same
jurisdiction.
3)Requires the report to be submitted to the Legislature within
6 months after the date of an all-mailed ballot election or
prior to the date of any other all-mailed ballot election
conducted under this bill, whichever is sooner.
4)Contains a December 31, 2016 sunset date.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Permits an election to be conducted wholly by mail if the
governing body authorizes the use of mailed ballots for the
election, the election occurs on an established mailed ballot
election date, and the election is one of the following:
a) An election in which no more than 1,000 registered
voters are eligible to participate;
b) An election in a city, county, or district with 5,000 or
fewer registered voters that is restricted to the
imposition of special taxes, expenditure limitation
overrides, or both;
c) An election on the issuance of a general obligation
water bond;
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d) An election in one of four specifically enumerated water
districts; or,
e) An election or assessment ballot proceeding required or
authorized by the state constitution under Proposition 218.
2)Authorizes a school district or city with a population of
100,000 or less to conduct an all-mail ballot election to fill
a vacancy in a special election.
3)Authorizes a district to conduct any election as an all-mailed
ballot election on any date other than an established election
date.
FISCAL EFFECT : Keyed non-fiscal by the Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of the Bill : According to the author:
Vote by mail has steadily increased in California since the
state began allowing voters to register as a permanent mail
ballot voters without having to provide a reason for doing
so, which has led some local election officials to promote
all vote-by-mail elections. These legislative efforts have
failed primarily out of concern for those who prefer to
vote at the polls - mostly poor non-white voters.
Increasingly, poor non-white voters are disproportionately
represented due to higher voting rates among permanent
(formerly known as absentee) mail ballot voters, who tend
to be older, wealthier, and white. While vote by mail
voting affects all elections, it is particularly acute in
traditionally low-turnout elections, such as local
elections without a state or federal contest.
It is unclear in these low-turnout elections whether the
potential increase in turnout from all vote-by-mail
elections will offset the potential decrease in turnout
caused by eliminating a preferred voting method (poll
voting) for some voters. Previously authorized pilot all
vote-by-mail elections did not provide detailed reports
that would allow such an analysis.
AB 1228 establishes pilot elections allowing Yolo County to
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conduct up to 3 local all vote-by-mail elections. These
elections will be subject to prescribed conditions to
minimize their impact on voters who traditionally vote at
the polls, including, but not limited to, requiring all
return postage to be pre-paid, a required two week early
voting period, one polling place per city, and a process to
ensure the timely mailing of ballots and sample ballots.
Legislation is needed for Yolo County to conduct a pilot
All-Postal election for the purpose of reporting the
demographic outcomes and the fiscal impacts compared to a
non-vote-by-mail election.
2)Vote By Mail and Permanent Vote By Mail Voting : Under state
law, any voter can request a VBM ballot for any election, and
any voter can become a permanent VBM voter. Permanent VBM
voters automatically receive a ballot in the mail for every
election, without the need to re-apply for a VBM ballot. As
such, any voter who prefers to vote by mail has the ability to
do so under existing law.
Among the arguments that supporters of all-mailed ballot
elections frequently make in support of such elections is that
all-mailed ballot elections are more convenient for voters.
However, it is not clear whether this is the case. Any voter
who finds it more convenient to vote by mail has the option to
do so under existing law, and voters who want to vote by mail
at every election can sign up for permanent VBM status.
Unlike many of the previous bills that would have authorized
all-mailed ballot elections, whether on a permanent or on a
pilot project basis, this bill explicitly requires Yolo County
to report back to the Legislature on the impact that the
all-mailed ballot election had on turnout of voters by
permanent VBM status. As a result, this pilot project may
provide the Legislature with more information about whether
all-mailed ballot elections may, in some circumstances, be
more convenient for voters than traditional elections, in
which voters may request to vote by mail, but are not
compelled to do so.
3)Monterey Pilot Project : AB 319 (Salinas), Chapter 385,
Statutes of 2001, allowed Monterey County to conduct any
election within the county wholly by mail, provided that the
election did not contain a state or federal office. AB 319
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specified that it was to serve as a pilot project for mailed
ballot elections, and required Monterey County to report to
the Legislature and the SOS regarding the success of the
election, including, but not limited to, any statistics on the
increase of voter fraud. The pilot project ended on December
31, 2005. AB 591 (Salinas) of 2005 sought to extend the pilot
project until December 31, 2008, but that bill failed after
never being heard in the Senate Elections Committee.
Unfortunately, the report filed by Monterey County as part of
the pilot project lacked much of the information that is
necessary to evaluate the impacts of the pilot project.
Although the report indicated that mailed ballot elections
increased turnout, decreased costs, and did not result in
voter fraud, the report lacked the detail necessary to
evaluate these claims.
4)Technical Issue : Recent amendments to this bill change the
sunset date from December 31, 2013 to December 31, 2016.
However, those amendments failed to update one reference to
the sunset date in the bill. To correct this technical error,
committee staff recommends the following amendment:
On page 2, line 26, strike out "2013" and insert "2016".
5)Previous Legislation : AB 1654 (Huffman) of 2007 would have
allowed jurisdictions in Calaveras, Marin, Mariposa, Nevada,
Plumas, Santa Barbara, Siskiyou, and Sonoma counties to
conduct any local, special, primary, or general election as an
all-mailed ballot election until December 31, 2013. AB 1654
was approved by this committee on a 4-3 vote, but subsequently
was amended to deal with an unrelated issue.
AB 867 (Liu) of 2005 would have authorized Calaveras, Mendocino,
San Benito, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Sierra, and Ventura
Counties to conduct all elections as all-mailed ballot
elections until January 1, 2011. AB 867 was held on the
Assembly Appropriations Committee's suspense file.
AB 319 (Salinas), Chapter 385, Statutes of 2001, allowed
Monterey County to conduct any election within the county
wholly by mail, provided that the election did not contain a
state or federal office. The provisions of AB 319 sunset on
December 31, 2005.
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file.
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094