BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
1440 (Swanson)
Hearing Date: 8/17/2009 Amended: 8/17/2009
Consultant: Maureen Ortiz Policy Vote: ER&CA 5-0
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 1440 requires county elections official to
allow persons who are responding to an emergency declared by the
Governor to vote in the county in which the disaster has
occurred.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund
Out-of-county voting -----unknown, likely less
than $50------ General*
*Reimbursable local mandate
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STAFF COMMENTS:
Actual costs are unknown, and will depend on the extent and
frequency of the disaster, whether the disaster occurs during an
election period, and the number of personnel who are not already
registered as vote-by-mail voters. Although it is possible that
a huge disaster could occur that would require thousands of
emergency personnel to transfer counties during an election
period, the likelihood and frequency of all of those factors
occurring at the same time is small. Further, counties would
only incur costs to the extent that the emergency worker had
time to get to an election precinct to cast a vote while in the
midst of extremely long work shifts. More than 3,000 workers
would need to cast provisional ballots under these circumstances
in order for the total reimbursable costs to exceed $50,000.
AB 1440 will allow emergency personnel who are officially
engaged in responding to a state of emergency after a disaster
such as fire, earthquake, etc, to vote in an election by casting
a provisional ballot within any county in California.
"Emergency worker" is defined as a person who is officially
engaged in responding to the proclaimed state of emergency and
whose vocation has been identified in the Governor's executive
order proclaiming the state of emergency. The county elections
official who receives the provisional ballot will be responsible
for transmitting that ballot to the county where the voter is
registered to vote. The ballot must be cast no later than the
close of polls on Election Day, and the county in which the
ballot was cast must forward it to the election official in the
voter's home county within 10 calendar days.
Very similar to this bill, in the fall of 1993 then Governor
Pete Wilson issued an Executive Order W-69-93 declaring a state
of emergency within the counties of Los Angeles, Orange,
Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura. The executive
order temporarily suspended certain portions of the Elections
Code regarding absentee voters and authorized elections
officials to issue a provisional ballot permitting a person
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AB 1440 (Swanson)
officially engaged in responding to the emergency to vote on all
statewide measures appearing on the November 2, 1993 Special
Statewide Election Ballot. Executive Order W-69-93 also
specified that upon return of a ballot by the voter by the close
of polls on election day, the elections official was required to
transmit for processing the ballot to the elections official in
the county where the voter was registered to vote.
AB 1440 is intended to ensure that emergency personnel are not
deprived of their right to vote during a Governor's declared
state emergency.