BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1440
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 1440 (Swanson)
As Amended September 2, 2009
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |75-0 |(May 14, 2009) |SENATE: |39-0 |(September 4, |
| | | | | |2009) |
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Original Committee Reference: E. & R.
SUMMARY : Requires county elections officials to issue a provisional
ballot to emergency workers responding to the Governor's declaration
of a state of emergency by executive order. Defines an emergency
worker as a person who is officially engaged in responding to the
proclaimed state of emergency and whose vocation has been identified
in an executive order relating to the state of emergency.
The Senate amendments :
1)Require the Governor to issue an executive order authorizing an
emergency worker to cast a ballot outside of his or her home
precinct in order for the provision of this bill to apply.
2)Limit the provisions of this bill to emergency workers only,
instead of any person responding to the declared emergency.
3)Define the term "emergency worker."
4)Make other technical and clarifying changes.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill allowed any person responding
to a state of emergency declared by the Governor to vote a special
provisional ballot that contained statewide measures and candidates
for statewide office.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations Committee,
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
AB 1440
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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.
COMMENTS : According to the author, "during a large-scale emergency,
state mutual aid agreements can require emergency personnel to
respond to a situation away from the county in which they are
registered to vote. If these voters have not requested, received,
or voted with a vote-by-mail ballot and/or do not return home before
Election Day, they will have no opportunity to vote. This bill
allows emergency personnel responding to a Governor's declared state
emergency to cast a provisional ballot within any county inside
California, regardless of which county the voter is currently
registered to vote."
Analysis Prepared by : Qiana Charles / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094
FN: 0002890